Starting Friday, several single-screen movie theatres in Telangana have decided to shut shop for ten days. The reason — Exhibitors say single-screen theatres are not profitable at the prevailing market conditions stemming from depleting footfall.
The exhibitors have also listed various reasons behind the dip in footfall, including lack of blockbuster releases, the sweltering summer heat, the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) games, Lok Sabha elections and rising cost of watching movies at cinema halls.
There are about 450 single-screen movie halls in Telangana, of which 150 are in Greater Hyderabad.
Advertisem*nt
The exhibitors are pinning their hopes on upcoming big releases in June 2024. (Express photo by Rahul V Pisharody)
According to Vijayender Reddy, President of the Telangana Film Exhibitors and Controllers Association, an average daily operational expenditure of anything around Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 is incurred by a single-screen theatre in smaller cities. The same is about Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000 in cities like Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, the daily average revenue has fallen below Rs 4,000, Reddy said, adding that a theatre is most likely to incur a loss of Rs 4,000 a day if it remains closed but will lose about Rs 7,000 if a film is screened. Vijayender Reddy said, “When a movie is screened, there are costs like the electricity and other operational expenses.”
The exhibitors are pinning their hopes on upcoming big releases in June 2024, such as Kalki starring Prabhas, Kamal Hassan’s Bharateeyudu 2 (Indian 2), Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2, NTR’s action drama Devara: Part 1, Ram Charan Tej’s upcoming political action thriller film Game Changer directed by S Shanker, Pawan Kalyan’s gangster-action thriller OG, period action-adventure film Hari Hara Veera Mallu: Part 1 and Puri Jagannadh’s upcoming directorial Double iSmart starring Ram.
Until then, there are only small releases that usually do not draw big crowds to theatres. The last big releases were Mahesh Babu-Trivikram Srinivas’s collaboration Guntur Kaaram and Nagarjuna’s Naa Saami Ranga during Sankranti in January, Ravi Teja’s Eagle in February and Vijay Deverakonda’s The Family Star released in April. Among these, only Guntur Kaaram and Naa Saami Ranga were hits.
Advertisem*nt
The last big releases were Mahesh Babu-Trivikram Srinivas’s collaboration Guntur Kaaram and Nagarjuna’s Naa Saami Ranga during Sankranti in January, Ravi Teja’s Eagle in February and Vijay Deverakonda’s The Family Star released in April. Among these, only Guntur Kaaram and Naa Saami Ranga were hits. (Express photo by Rahul V Pisharody)
Vijayender Reddy, who is also an ex-president of the state film chamber, said theatre owners are free to exhibit movies of their choice and there are no diktats from the association. “Some of us who are not able to meet the expenditures have decided to close the halls for the next 10 days. Some big theatres are getting Rs 3 lakh to 4 lakh from producers to run the shows. They will continue. No producer gives such amounts to my theatre, so I will not be operational,” Reddy added.
On Friday, while many theatres across Hyderabad remained closed, some of the big theatres, especially the ones near RTC X-road, were operational as the 2005 blockbuster Aparichitudu (Anniyan in Tamil) was re-released across the state. “The response is good. The morning show had 95 per cent occupancy and we hope to get good collections for at least three to four days,” said Srinivas Reddy, the manager at Sudarshan Cinemas.
Agreeing with Vijayender’s views, he too said that it is better to keep the theatres closed to at least save up on the electricity bills. “We have 40 employees here. Besides their salaries, the daily electricity bill is around Rs 10,000 and an additional Rs 4000 goes for diesel in two hours during a power outage. We need to earn at least Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000 per show. The daily revenues now do not even cross Rs 20,000,” Srinivas Reddy added.
Vijayender Reddy, who is also an ex-president of the state film chamber, said theatre owners are free to exhibit movies of their choice and there are no diktats from the association. (Express photo by Rahul V Pisharody)
According to Srinivas Reddy, the daily revenues depend on the kind of film and public response. “The Family Star got an average daily revenue of Rs 20,000 per theatre, whereas Bahubali got an average daily revenue of Rs 2 lakh per theatre. In the case of smaller films, there is hardly any publicity and advertisem*nts. So, the response from the public remains cold,” he added.
Advertisem*nt
Manager Madhusudhan of Sandhya Theatre, another one near RTC X-road, added that they decided to stay open to not disturb the momentum. “Some films do not even have 10 viewers per show. We are operating even now so that our reputation is not affected. And, even if we remain shut, we still have to pay salaries,” he reasoned.
