After a bumpy ride over the last few years, the Indian film industry seems to have staged a comeback, with back to back successes of Bollywood, regional and Hollywood films this year bringing back the much-needed footfalls to theatres in large numbers across the country.

Jawan and Gadar 2, released in the first half of this financial year, have become the highest-ever Bollywood offerings, grossing more than ₹500 crore each (Hindi net box office collections or NBOC), research firm Emkay Research said.

Among regional movies, Rajnikanth-starrer Jailer stood out with collections in excess of ₹300 crore, which was followed by the films like Dream Girl 2, OMG 2, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, Oppenheimer, and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning that crossed the ₹100-crore mark during the year.

The firm expects PVR Inox to have a good performance in the second quarter, keeping in view the good NBOCs. “Operational parameters, ATP (average ticket price) and SPH (spend per head), should improve, with advertising revenue also likely to bounce back,” it said in a report.

The firm felt that the recovery of broadcasters was expected to be gradual, as advertisers step up spending. “Subscription growth is expected to remain stable while both, Zee and Sun TV, would clock benefit from the performance of their movies Gadar 2 and Jailer,” it said.

Zee’s advertising revenue should grow sequentially on a weak base of the first quarter of this financial year, but continues to decline on a year-on-year basis. Sun TV should report a small uptick of 2 per cent year-on-year in its advertising revenue.

Outlook

“The third quarter pipeline also appears strong, though bigger movies are bunched for release in the second half of the quarter,” it said.

The report said that the strike in Hollywood (the Writer’s Guild of America; WGA), which lasted for nearly five months, is likely to have some impact on the pipeline of international movies for the next couple of quarters.

For broadcasters, recovery has been gradual and should continue going ahead, report added. “Spending in the upcoming festive season will be keenly watched. After a significant delay, Zee has received necessary approvals from the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal), regarding ZEEL’s merger with Sony. We now expect re-listing of the merged entity around mid-December 2023,” the report said.

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