April likely to be similar; multiplexes worried.
Box office collections for Bollywood films in March stood at about Rs 60 crore, the lowest in three years, said analysts. A further drop is expected in April.
So far, Bollywood films have been generating an average monthly collection of about Rs 110 crore. The leanest month before this was May 2008, when collections were Rs 90 crore. The reason for the low April figure is the launch of the Indian Premier League Twenty20 format cricket tournament.
Analysts expect April gross collections to further drop by 15-20 per cent compared with March. The 250-plus multiplexes across the country are expecting losses of about Rs 200 crore if the scenario continues till June.
The main factor is a drastic fall in theatre occupancy to below 20 per cent due to non-release of new films because of the stalemate between film producers and multiplex owners over a new revenue-sharing formula.
A typical multiplex has between 160 and 200 seats. Occupancy for a successful Bollywood film is 75-95 per cent. “These are the worst times for the multiplex business. With no sign of availability of new films, chains are looking at facing losses for at least another two months,” said Vishal Kapur, chief operating officer of Fun Cinemas, which operates 19 multiplexes.
Analysts say monthly fixed cost of operating a multiplex is Rs 40-50 lakh depending on size and location. “A multiplex has to generate monthly gross collections of Rs 1-1.25 crore to cover fixed costs. The additional revenue comes from sale of food and beverages,” said a senior executive of a leading chain.
For March, and now April, the average monthly collections from individual multiplexes have fallen to Rs 20-25 lakh, compared with the earlier Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1 crore-plus.
“We are hoping for some big releases from May. There are 11 months to go in this fiscal and we hope to more than recover the current losses if we get good films for even eight months,” said a top executive of a Mumbai-based chain, requesting anonymity.
The decline in box-office collections has also impacted online movie ticket bookings adversely. Says Roopesh Shah, head of marketing for bookmyshow.com, a specialised portal for online theatre bookings in big cities: “Online bookings of movie tickets on our portal has gone down by over 40 per cent in March. It may further go down for the current and next months if no new films are released.”
