Newly merged multiplex entity PVR INOX launched nine screens in Dehradun and Telangana’s Armoor on Friday as it expands into smaller towns and the more film-crazy southern part of the country to shore up revenues after the pandemic’s extended lockdowns ravaged the incomes of the erstwhile rivals and forced them into a union.
With per screen cost of Rs 2.5 crore, a total of at least Rs 22.5 crore has gone into putting up the five screens in Dehradun and four screens in Armoor, PVR INOX Executive Director Sanjeev Bijli told Business Today.
“With India’s growth projected at 7 per cent, a lot of it is poised to be coming from the smaller towns. This wave of consumerism and consumption, we will see a lot of impetus from the small towns and cities,” he said about the rationale to launch their second property in Dehradun.
Speaking about the choice of Armoor, Bijli said south India was always a big market and that most of the movies which succeeded at the box office last year were from the region. “It has remained a robust market where people are consuming films at cinemas the way they used to before the pandemic. The numbers for south India have bounced back post-pandemic to its original level. So, south India expansion is almost a no-brainer for us. Armoor is again a small place which doesn’t have a retail mall. We strongly feel the combination of a great mall and good cinemas will give us good results,” he added.
The launches take the country’s largest cinema exhibitor’s screen count to a whopping 1,680 screens across 359 properties in 115 cities in India and Sri Lanka. This includes 523 screens across 94 properties in south India and 443 screens across 101 properties in North India. With an estimated 9,000 screens in the country, India is an underscreened market compared to China which has nine times as many screens.
Although launched by the merged PVR INOX company, the nine screens will be branded as PVR, clarified Bijli. “Going forward, whatever new screens we open, the branding for that is still being worked out,” he added.
The merger became effective on February 06, 2023, after the approvals of several entities such as the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), almost a year after the merger was first announced in March 2022. During the financial year 2022-23, PVR-INOX has launched 168 screens across 30 properties in 24 cities.
The consolidation left debt-ridden Carnival Cinemas as the distant second in the space with its 450-plus screens across 100 cities, most of which care categorised as Tier 2 and 3. Cinepolis India, the only exhibitor in the country with an international backing, follows closely with its 400 screens across 22 Indian cities – a fraction of its Mexican parent’s 6,700 screens worldwide.
PVR and INOX, both listed companies, saw their revenues plummet during the pandemic owing to multiple lockdowns across the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus infection. PVR’s revenue nosedived from Rs 3,452 crore at the end of FY20 to Rs 310 crore by FY21. INOX’s revenue crashed from Rs 1,915 crore in FY20 to Rs 148 crore at the end of FY21.
In the December 2022 quarter, the last one before the merger, PVR posted revenue of Rs 940.7 crore and net profit of Rs 16.15 crore. INOX Leisure’s revenue from operations stood at Rs 515.57 crore and a consolidated net loss of Rs 40.41 crore.
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