Now playing: How India is finally becoming one unified cinema market

In 2024, Indians bought 883 million movie tickets, 6 per cent fewer than in the previous year. They spent over Rs 11,800 crore on those tickets (about 3 per cent less than in 2023), according to data shared by Ormax Media with Business Standard. Why then is there constant chatter about gloom and doom in the movie business?

 

“Perception,” says Ajay Bijli, managing director at PVR Inox, the largest cinema chain in India. Amit Sharma, managing director (entertainment) at Miraj Group, which operates 250 screens, agrees. “Bollywood (Hindi films) drives perception for Indian cinema. Since it underperformed in 2024, the perception is that it has been a bad year.” Just under half of the national box-office (BO) revenues come from Hindi films, which saw their share slip by 4 per cent.

 

Now the reality

 

Sukumar’s Pushpa 2: The Rule, a blockbuster that hit over Rs 1,400 crore at the domestic BO, is a Telugu film, also released in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada. It is one of the highest-grossing Indian films alongside Dangal (2016), Jawan (2023), and RRR (2022). Of the top 20 films at the BO in 2024, five are Telugu, four Hindi, three Tamil, three Malayalam, and one English. Malayalam cinema doubled its share of the national BO. The homogenisation of distribution, thanks to streaming platforms, means India is finally becoming one cinema market.

 

Other real reason for the gloom and doom, however, is structural. Indian cinema generates revenues of about Rs 20,000 crore, two-thirds of which come from the BO or ticket sales. This determines what streaming and television firms pay for rights. “Over the past three years (ended 2024), input costs have risen by 20-25 per cent but revenues (both BO and others) have remained flat,” points out Vikram Malhotra, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Abundantia Entertainment, the makers of Airlift, among others. 

“Given the size of India, Rs 12,000 crore at the BO is not enough. Even 5-10 per cent growth is not satisfactory if you want the market to expand,” says Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media. To go from just under 900 million tickets to a billion and more needs many things: more screens, a better supply line of films, and a steadier release schedule.

 

The Hindi, Hollywood problem

 

Take supply, a problem in both Hollywood and Hindi. “Until 2018, large Hindi films fought for a release. In 2024, there have been weeks, and at one point two months, without a release,” points out Kapoor. Some of this was due to general elections, the Indian Premier League. But much of it is simply due to the fear of a market and a consumer that is transitioning fast.

 

“The studios are less sure of what to make and are going slow. A lot of projects are in cold storage and scripts that are ready are not being cleared,” says Kapoor.

 

Theatrical successes swing wildly between the big event films, such as Kalki 2898 AD, and small ones like Munjya. 

 

Even if the studios were certain, pushing up the supply requires capital. That is a task that is now underway. Last year, 50 per cent in Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, the company behind some of the biggest Hindi hits, was sold to Serum Institute of India’s CEO Adar Poonawalla for Rs 1,000 crore. There is talk of Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment and Siddharth Roy-Kapur’s RKF, among others, seeking investment. This quest for scale among India’s one-man production houses is a good sign.

 

On the Hollywood side, the writers’ strike in 2023 choked the pipeline in 2024. Sharma points to another thing holding back expansion.

 

“There is no effort to make the movie reach all the 1.4 billion people. You need to have lead actors going out, doing 10-12 city tours. All the marketing is digital now. There is all this talk of so many million trailer views. But who is watching them? Russians?” asks Sharma.

 

In the star-crazy, single-screen southern market, fan clubs double as ambassadors for a film. In Hindi, except for Shah Rukh, there are few stars with fan clubs that could swing the fortunes of a film.

 

The good news is that 2025-26 is packed with big films: Avatar 3, Mission Impossible, many of the Marvel movies, and films starring Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, and possibly Shah Rukh Khan. “The slate is looking good. People are jostling for (release) dates. That is a good sign,” says Bijli.