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The Indian box office has seen a strong recovery since the pandemic outbreak, clocking clocking ₹4,002 crore in gross revenues and the year is also expected to end with the highest ever domestic box office collections.
According to a report released by Interactive Television Pvt Ltd and Ormax Media, this recovery was led by movies such as K.G.F : Chapter 2, RRR, The Kashmir Files among others.
Interactive Television Pvt Ltd is a cinema advertising company and part of GroupM India.
Setting records
The report stated that the domestic box office numbers reached a whopping ₹4,002 crore within Jan-April and termed it the best–ever performance post Covid. “It was also the first time that the monthly average box office stands at more than ₹1,000 crore,” it added. This recovery was achieved despite the impact of the third wave and nearly 18 per cent of the cinemas being closed since 2019, it added.
In terms of footfalls, too, the box office saw a rebound. Hindi cinema has contributed 38 per cent to the box office. However, almost 60 per cent of this share comes from Hindi dubbed version of South Indian films.
K.G.F: Chapter 2, with a collection of ₹1,008 crore so far, as it is still in theatres, was the best performing film of the quarter followed by RRR and The Kashmir Files, the report estimated.
Industry optimistic
Prasanth Kumar, CEO, of GroupM South Asia, said, “Five months into this year and we are seeing very promising numbers in terms of box office collection and consumer footfalls in the theatres. Movies have always been India’s favourite source of entertainment and this year looks very optimistic to us in terms of recovery, following two years of slowdown due to Covid.”
With a spate of big-ticket releases lined up across languages for the remaining part of 2022, the year is projected to close at a gross domestic box office of ₹12,515 crore, which will be the highest ever, beating the 2019 levels by a margin of ₹1,567 crore, the report noted.
2022 is also the first time that the domestic gross box office has crossed the ₹4,000 crore level in the Jan-Apr period.
Ajay Mehta, Founder and MD, Interactive Television (iTV) and MD, Kinetic India,said, “With the return of audience into the cinemas, we are also seeing major advertiser interest picking up where it was left in 2019. We have already seen more than 350 brands active on cinemas. With several big-ticket releases planed across languages for the rest of the year, we are optimistic about this year’s cinema adex.”
As per GroupM, around 280 brands advertised their products/services in the opening week of KGF : Chapter 2.
Shailesh Kapoor, Founder and CEO, Ormax Media, said, “ The first four months of 2022 have proven that theatrical medium has not only bounced back but also emerged as stronger than seen in the best. 2022 will be the biggest box office year till date by a good margin.”
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