 "Shah Rukh Khan")
2023 was a blockbuster year for Bollywood, with producers not only crossing domestic box-office collections of the pre-pandemic levels of calendar year (CY2019), when it hit a record Rs 11,000 crore, but also likely to end the year with a more than 10 per cent increase over it, or with an additional of Rs 1100 core.
In CY2022 box office (BO) collections were slightly lower than pre-pandemic levels — around Rs 10,600 crore, according to industry estimates.
However, the average occupancy percentage across screens this year has been 5 per cent lower than in CY19, although industry experts say that it is likely to reach similar levels next year.
A large part of the increase in collections was due to two factors. For the first time, four movies hit domestic box-office collections of over Rs 500 crore, a record for Bollywood. This includes the Ranbir Kapoor starrer Animal which is all set to hit that number soon (it was at Rs 432 crore as on December 10), Shah Rukh Khan’s two blockbusters, Pathaan and Jawan, and Gadar 2 starring Sunny Deol .
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And if the BO numbers of Avataar, which was launched in 2022 end and whose collections spilled over to 2023, is added, it would mean another Rs 390 crore. In fact, the five movies together would amount to over Rs 2,600 crore in box office collections.
In CY22 there was just one movie which neared the Rs 500 crore mark — KGF Chapter 2 which collected Rs 434 crore in the box office.
The difference that the big movies made is also reflected in the fact that the collections of the 10 highest domestic BO grossers in CY23 is set to hit over Rs 3,300 crore, which is far higher than the Rs 2,400 crore made during the previous year.
The second factor that led to the increase in BO collections is that the ticket prices in multiplexes were hiked between 7.5 per cent and 8 per cent on an average, helping producers and exhibitors to generate more revenue.
Kamal Gianchandani, CEO of PVR Pictures and president of the Multiplex Association of India (MAI), says “It was an amazing year for the movies as we have never had four big movies hitting over Rs 500 crore in the box— office. Earlier, we would celebrate if one movie in a year hit over Rs 300 crore. Box-office collections for the industry are up by 10 per cent from the peaks of CY19, and based on the number of movies in production, we expect the trend to continue in 2024 too.”
However, despite all the action, occupancy rates have still not reached the levels of CY19, say industry experts and the MAI. In CY22 they were 15 per cent lower, but that gap has now come down to only 5 per cent in CY23.
Of course, part of the gap could also be due to the addition of capacity that was made in anticipation of demand. According to estimates, a net of 200-250 new screens were added in CY23, although exhibitors like PVR also rationalised some screens by closing them down (around 50 screens were closed). But industry expects that occupancy levels in 2024 will easily cross the levels of CY19.
