A flicker of old magic

PACKED LOBBIES SIGNAL HOPE FOR MULTIPLEXES BUT RECOVERY WILL BE CONTENT-LED

- GEETIKA SRIVASTAVA

AFTER DHURANDHAR HIT theatre screens early this December, the scene inside India’s multiplexes felt oddly reassuring.

Lobbies were crowded, weekend shows were sold out early, and word-of-mouth began to work its magic. Just as Dhurandhar settled into an unexpectedly strong run, Avatar: Fire and Ash arrived in cinemas worldwide, bringing with it the promise of scale, spectacle and cross-generational appeal. Together, the releases have reignited hope for an industry reeling under the OTT streaming challenge, high operational costs and content shortage.

But is life genuinely returning to multiplexes or are these films merely riding another short-lived wave of big ticket marketing?

The market’s answer so far has been cautious. PVR INOX’s stock is still down sharply over the past year, even as industry watchers acknowledge that the December quarter is shaping up better than many had expected. Brokerages tracking box office trends estimate that industry-wide net box office collections could cross ¢30 billion in the third quarter, a level breached only a few times since the pandemic. Dhurandhar alone has delivered a meaningful share of that momentum, emerging as what one brokerage calls an unlikely but timely boost to earnings.