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Multiplex player PVR narrowed down its consolidated net loss to ₹71.49 crore in the quarter ended September, compared to ₹153.27 crore in the year-ago period. However, Q2 was marked by weaker-than-anticipated performances of key Hindi movies at the box office.
Consolidated revenue from operations in Q2 stood at ₹686.72 crore (₹120.32 crore). It may be noted that cinema operations were severely impacted due to the pandemic in Q2 FY22.
Nitin Sood, CFO, PVR, said the September quarter was the weakest quarter globally, in terms of the number of Hollywood movies released and their box office collections.
Bollywood’s big-budget flicks such as Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhan performed below expectations. Brahmastra: Part One was the key Hindi movie to do well at the box office. “The underperformance of Hindi films could be due to several factors such as the films released were conceived before and during the pandemic and did not resonate well with the current tastes. Also, quality of content driving performance as compared to star presence and negative social media campaign against certain Bollywood movies and stars could have played a part,” the company added.
Saving grace
The multiplex chain added that regional movies continued to perform well. “For PVR, the box office contribution of regional movies increased from 28 per cent in Q2 FY20 to 44 per cent in Q2 FY23,” it said.
“Q3 has started off on a good note with strong performance of movies such as Ponniyin Selvan - 1 and Vikram Vedha. We are hoping that the underperformance of the box office in Q2 will be a one-off as the content pipeline for the next three months looks very promising,” Sood added.
The company said it added 14 new screens in the September quarter. “We are ramping up capex to open a total of 110-125 new screens by the end of the fiscal,” it added.
On the proposed PVR-Inox merger, the company said, “Both the companies have received their respective shareholders’ and secured creditors’ approval for the proposed scheme of amalgamation. We expect the NCLT process to be completed in the next 3-4 months,” it added.
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