Movie theatres here to stay, and people are coming back: Cinepolis

The pandemic has had a crippling effect on growth and nothing could be worse especially for a business segment which deals with discretionary spending. Entertainment, therefore, is a serious casualty, although, now, there appears to be some visible recovery. Of course, the big-budget films - the Rajinikanth-starrer Annaatthe and Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi - have helped matters by bringing in the audience, almost willing to do anything for a bit of that entertainment.  

Cinepolis, a Mexican movie theatre chain, with 400 screens in India - thereby making it the third largest after PVR and Inox -- is optimistic about the fortunes of the industry. "Sooryavanshi is the biggest release after two years and we are seeing capacity of 80 per cent of what it was," says Devang Sampat, Cinepolis India's CEO, whose India business is spread across 22 states and 64 cities.

Just how some of the big releases have done globally does point to possibly something. "The recovery has been swift with Dune making over $300 million, with an established James Bond franchise, No Time To Die going past $600 million. Spectre grossed in excess of $800 million," he points out, while quickly stating that the recovery in India has been better. "For example, in Punjab, franchise movies have performed as well or even better than the pre-COVID-19 phase. Qismat 2 raked in Rs 16.6 crore compared to Qismat 1 at Rs 19 cr, while Chal Mera Putt 2 has grossed Rs 14.5 cr against Chal Mera Putt 1 at Rs 10.5 cr." Likewise, Telugu films such as Love Story and Most Eligible Bachelor have easily surpassed the Rs 30 crore-mark.

But what about the domineering presence of OTT? Has it eaten into the movie theatre business? Cinepolis' Sampat is not too concerned about the OTT story and makes it clear that cinema has survived and has also thrived when it had to face these disruptions. Cinepolis, he says, has been around for over 50 years with a presence in 19 countries. "We have 6,700 screens and over time needed to deal with the colour television and later video recording. Now, there is talk of OTT beating cinema but history has also seen cinema growing impressively," he says. In Sampat's opinion, the pandemic had the audience with limited viewing options and resulted in OTT experiencing "super-normal growth."

Being an international multiplex operator in India is a different experience and Sampat, though unwilling to open up on expansion (his company acquired Fun Cinemas from the Essel Group in early-2015) sees it as a unique market for many a reason.  

"Hollywood's contribution here is only at 15 per cent and that is lower than most markets, with Bollywood at 44 per cent and regional at 41 per cent. Besides, the proportion of each varies depending on the market," he explains. For instance, in Delhi, Hindi cinema is over 60 per cent, while it is 50 per cent in Kolkata and just a meagre 2 per cent in Chennai. "There is a huge opportunity in India being under-screened given that it makes 2,000 movies each year, making it the highest for any country. We have less than 10,000 screens compared to 75,000 in China," he adds.

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