The worldwide release of film director SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus ‘RRR’ has sent the stock prices of multiplex chains soaring to a new high. On Friday, the film had a massive worldwide release in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.
The Junior NTR-Ram Charan starrer action drama witnessed a massive theatrical debut, releasing in around 4,000 screens across the country.
Rise in stock prices
The stock price of India’s leading multiplex chain PVR Cinemas hit a 52-week high of ₹1,866.90 apiece on BSE, rising over 5 per cent from the previous day’s close.
Similarly, stock price of the country’s second largest movie exhibitor Inox Leisure also touched a 52-week high of ₹496.85 per share intraday, 12 per cent higher than its previous day closing price. As of 2 pm, stocks of PVR Cinemas and Inox were trading at ₹1,847.2 and ₹482, respectively.
Improved business outlook
Multiplex stocks are on an upward trend over the last few weeks amid improved business outlook aided by easing of pandemic restrictions, improved footfall in cinemas and most importantly due to a strong line up of ready-to-release contents over the next few months.
Post-pandemic releases like Pawan Kalyan’s Bheemla Nayak (Telugu), Ajith Kumar’s Valimai (Tamil) and director Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files (Hindi) have already hit the ₹200-crore mark at the box office brining cheers to the pandemic-battered film exhibition industry.
Given the massive hype and record breaking pre-booking, film exhibitors are pinning high hopes on RRR for their business recovery and to pull a large number of film audiences back to cinemas.
According to media reports, RRR, which was reportedly made at a cost of ₹400 crore, has done a pre-release theatrical business of ₹470 crore, the highest ever for an Indian movie.
The producers are also believed to have recovered ₹300 crore in non-theatrical revenues like satellite and digital sales, taking the overall recovery to more than ₹750 crore so far.
RRR, which also has Bollywood actors Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn playing an important role, was originally scheduled for theatrical release on July 30, 2020 but was forced to postpone multiple times due to the Covid-19 pandemic.