Big ticket films here like Salman Khan’s Sultan, Aamir Khan’s PK, 3 Idiots, Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale or Fan, Akshay Kumar’s Rustom, Airlift or even Rajinikanth’s Kabali may be raking in money hand over fist, but the Indian film industry while being the largest globally in terms of films produced – 1,500 to 2,000 – every year has gross box office collections realizations of Rs 13,800 crore ($2.1 billion). This is significantly lower than the $11 US and Canadian film business that makes 700 movies on an average each year.
According to a report, Indywood, brought out be Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the Indian film industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11% to touch Rs 23,800 crore ($ 3.7 billion) by 2020. The domestic box office collections account for 74% of the industry revenues. The Hindi film industry dominates the business accounting for 43% of all revenues, while regional (50%) and international films (7%) account for the balance. Tamil and Telugu movies account for 19% and 17% of the total revenues.
Over the past few years, many movies have been raking in over Rs 100 crore in box-office revenues. There were six such movies in 2014 and 2015, followed by five in 2015. In 2013 and 2015, two movies earned over Rs 200 crore, while it was three in 2014.
The movie scene has changed with the emergence of multiplexes. They increased from 925 in 2009 to 2,100 in 2015. Over the period, close to 2,000 single-screen cinemas have shut down primarily due to greater cost of operations, non-viability of running on a standalone basis and low occupancy rates. Multiplexes that account for 26% of the screens in the country contribute more than 40% of box-office collections. Yet, screen penetration in India is quite dismal at 6 per million population. This is much lower than China (23), Germany (45), UK (61), France (85) and the US (126).
As the window to monetize a film at the box-office has fallen considerably, studios are looking at ancillary means to tap revenues. This includes in-cinema advertising that was Rs 6,300 crore in 2015, a 28% growth over the previous year. Other sources of revenue that have started to gain traction include video-on-demand and mobile and online platforms.
There has been a slow growth in the average ticket prices (ATP) of movies. The ATP has risen slowly from Rs 150-160 in 2011 to Rs 175-200 in 2015, growing at a CAGR of 4%. Tier 1 cities have an ATP of Rs 200, but that falls to Rs 160 and Rs 100 in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. This is lower than the ATP in China, $5.5 (Rs 375). The film industry employs 2 lakh people (2015) and is expected to rise to 2.85 lakh (2017).
