In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Nitin Sood, CFO, PVR, said that bookings during January-February were impacted by Omicron but cinegoers are returning to theatres now. He also highlighted that average ticket prices were up by 14 percent in Q3.

Share Market Live

NSE

He said, “Audience is coming back to theatres in a big way, so that is good news for cinema. This reflects that audience is willing to come back and with the big line-up of films that we have ahead, hopefully it should be a good time for cinemas.”

“We are also seeing strong growth on ticketing as well as food and beverages (F&B). January and February was impacted because of Omicron but as the restrictions have been lifted and film releases are beginning, hopefully, March should be a great month for the cinema business,” added Sood.

Also Read: PVR Q3FY22 results: Net loss narrows to better-than-expected Rs 22 crore

“In the last quarter, ticket pricing was up almost 14 percent for Q3FY22 and we got only 2 months of operations. Our sense with respect to ticket pricing is, as new films start releasing, we will see strong growth and we should be able to repeat what we did in Q3, going ahead. This quarter, two months were impacted and mid-February onwards, we saw new film releases, but we are seeing strong ticket price growth over what we were trading in at pre-pandemic level,” Sood added.

Also Read: Gangubai Kathiawadi movie review: A landmark film in Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Alia Bhatt’s cinematic oeuvre

He elaborated that the audience is now upbeat about visiting cinema halls. That is reflected well in the box office collection numbers as all three releases of last Friday have done exceedingly well. Sharing details about collections, he said that Gangibai Kathiawadi grossed over Rs 40 crore over the weekend. He further mentioned that Valimai’s opening collections were the highest for a Tamil film in the pandemic.

Watch the video for the full interview.

First Published:Feb 28, 2022 1:46 PM IST