Cinema faces shrinking sales, new challenges
There may be an occasional boost in box office collections for recent releases like ‘Singham Again’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’. Both made Rs 260 crore each for the first 20 days. But the overall picture in recent years and months is the Indian film industry is crawling.
There is an obvious crisis of content – again something Bollywood pundits have been wailing about for years. That it has taken two ‘follow-on’ movies of previous hits to save the day speaks volumes for intellectually bankruptcy.
The figures say it all: Box office collections from January to October this year, dropped 7 per cent to Rs 8,951 crore compared to Rs 9,521 crore for the same 10-month period last year, says a report of Ormax Media.
The box office collections for October this year at Rs 994 crore was marginally better than for last October’s Rs812 crore; but it was Tamil films – ‘Amaran’ and ‘Vettaiyan’ – that contributed over 50 percent of the sales.
Slow growth
Ten years ago, with no Covid-19 to factor in, the story was the same. A KPMG report produced for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (FICCI) annual Jamboree – ‘Frames 2015’ – said the industry’s revenues grew just 0.9 percent from 2013 to 2014.
Theatrical and ancillary revenues for the film industry rose marginally from $2 billion to $2.02 billion (Rs 13,300 crore) as opposed to the projected $2.21 billion (Rs 14,500 crore) in the 2014 report. This was mainly due to weak box office returns. The saving grace then was the Christmas 2014 release of “P.K.” that grossed more than $100 million worldwide.
Nearly a decade later, Ernst & Young (EY), which produced the entertainment industry report for ‘Frames 2024’, said theatrical and ancillary revenue for the industry clocked Rs 19,700 crore for calendar 2023. For 2014, even after factoring in a stronger rupee, film revenue was around Rs 13,300 crore and expected to go up marginally to Rs 14,700 crore in 2015. So where is the growth?
Though industry reports by management consultants like KPMG and EY are usually bubbling and optimistic, in this case even they cannot avoid conceding the stagnation gripping the film industry.
The traditional exhibition formats like single screens, and multiplexes are on the decline. For calendar 2023, this is what EY said: Screen count increased 4 percent, but remained at just 9,742, which shows the cinema experience remains a luxury for most Indians. Admissions continued to decline from 944 million to just over 900 million, a fall of 5 percent; less than 100 million people visited a cinema hall in 2023. Broadcast rights remained soft as film channels struggled with ratings and monetization.
Calendar 2024 will probably be worse than the previous year. As already noted, box office collections are down by 7 percent for the first 10 months. Cinema-going is in the cultural blood of Indians. Yet, why is the industry doing so badly?