PVR back in black in Q3 with regional movies setting box office afire
Multiplex operator PVR said India’s gross box office collection from regional movies stood at Rs 5380 in 2022, up 30 percent from 2019. The number of movie releases saw a rise of 17 percent.
Multiplex operator PVR posted a net profit of Rs 16.1 crore in the October-December quarter compared to a loss of Rs 10.2 crore in the corresponding period a year ago. On a quarterly basis too PVR’s figures have improved as it registered a loss of Rs 71 crore in the last quarter.
PVR saw its revenue rise 53.2 percent at Rs 941 crore against Rs 614 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2021. The multiplex major’s EBITDA increased 75.1 percent while the margins stood at 30.7 percent versus 26.9 percent in the corresponding period a year ago.
“The performance of the quarter gone by demonstrates the swift recovery in the business as soon as good quality content is made available. After a dismal Q2, it also marks good recovery in box office collections. With the regional movies superlative performance continuing across India, it is only a matter of time before performance of Bollywood movies catches up. We are looking for a significant uptick in box office collections for next fiscal year and a strong recovery in Bollywood and Hollywood collections,” said Ajay Bijli, Chairman and Managing Director, PVR.
Rise and rise of regional movies
In a regulatory filing, PVR mentioned that India’s gross box office collection from regional movies stood at Rs 5,380 crore in 2022, a 30 percent jump over 2019. The number of movie releases saw a rise of 17 percent.
On a quarterly basis, the box office collection for regional movies in India increased 18 percent.
Meanwhile, things haven't been that favourable for Bollywood and Hollywood releases in India. The gross box office collection in India for Bollywood movies in 2022 declined 28 percent from 2019. For Hollywood films, the collections declined 24 percent. Bollywood movie releases too saw a decline of 22 percent.
On a quarterly basis, the box office collection for Bollywood movies increased 11 percent while for Hollywood there was a sharp jump of 120 percent driven by the success of Avatar: The Way Of Water.
Average gross collection for top five movies saw a sharp increase of 75 percent for PVR in Q3FY23 compared to Q2 FY22. Two South Indian movies Kantara (Kannada) and Ponniyin Selvan Part-1 (Tamil) ranked third and fourth in the list.
F&B, advertising and movie tickets all on an increase but still below pre pandemic levels
In the October-December quarter, sale of movie tickets for PVR increased 33 percent from the previous quarter, sales of food and beverages increased 25 percent while the revenue from advertising increased 38 percent.
Further, in the nine months of FY22 the sales of movie tickets fell 8 percent, sale from food and beverage segment increased 8 percent while advertising income saw a sharp fall of 35 percent when compared to pre-pandemic levels of nine months of FY20.
So far year-to-date, PVR has opened 63 screens across 11 cinemas and the operator is on track to open 100-110 screens in FY23.
In terms of screen portfolio, as of January 19, 2023, PVR has 181 cinemas with 903 screens in 78 cities. The multiplex operator has the maximum 323 screens in South India (which also includes numbers from Sri-Lanka).
The PVR-INOX merger
The PVR-INOX Leisure merger was approved by the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai on January 12. The Mumbai Bench of NCLT has cleared the scheme of amalgamation between INOX Leisure (transferor) and PVR (transferee company), PVR said in a regulatory filing.
“We got the verbal order from the NCLT Mumbai bench on January 12, 2023. We are waiting for the certified true copy of the order, which is expected in the next couple of weeks. After that, typically the process of completion of the merger would take about 30-40 days, which would involve filing the order copy setting a record date for issue of PVR shares to INOX shareholders and that whole process we expect to complete in the next 45 days from the date of receipt of the order,” he said.
The company expects to complete all the legal formalities with respect to the proposed merger, including the issue of PVR shares to INOX shareholders within the next 45 days of receipt of certified true copy of the order passed by NCLT. The expected date of receipt of certified true copy of the order is between January 25-January 31, 2023.
Also read: PVR-Inox merger: Will your popcorn or ticket price get expensive? Here is what experts think
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
First Published: Jan 19, 2023 6:30 PM IST
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