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The future shines bright for the movie watching community in India. A booming economy, a young audience profile, the onset of the multiplex culture and increasing spending patterns bode well for all stakeholders - movie exhibitors, movie makers and the audience. If the opportunity is seized and acted upon with the audience in mind, it could reap in profits for the exhibitors.

The Indian film industry , the largest in the world with 1000 movies made every year, is pegged at an estimated Rs. 6800 crore and is expected to grow at a healthy rate of 20% per annum. A key factor for us is that the domestic box office revenues account for 78% of the total industry revenue. The industry forecast is pegged at Rs. 15300 crore by 2010 and is headed northward in the years to come with India’s demographics - a population with an astounding 24 years as the median age amongst more than 1 billion. To add to this scenario, higher spending has already been recorded in eating out, movies and theater, books and music. With the long term forecast for the next 25 years looking so bright, movie industry stakeholders could benefit tremendously by a slight change in customer focus and going all out to woo them. The key is that the ratio of domestic box office revenues must be protected or even increased - more audiences should be ideally watching movies at the theatres.

CINEMA HALLS TO VIEWING PUBLIC RATIO

One of the reasons for the growth in movie watching has been attributed to the number of theatres that have been set up in the country thanks to a boom in retail sector. Mall operators depend on attracting footfalls through a combination of branded food and apparel outlets as well as theater chains. Movies and entertainment outlets are the key drivers forthe successes of malls.
Despite the increase in theatres, for a nation of nearly 3 billion admissions every year (weekly entry of about 55 million), India is estimated to have only 12, 900 theatres across the country. (CII – DSK Legal, Media and Entertainment Industry 2003). As per a UNESCO report, India needs about 20000 theatres more to meet its demand. 300 odd mulitplexes help the domestic box office revenues.

THREATS TO BOX OFFICE REVENUES

The increase in options to watch movies in places other than movie theatres poses a threat. Audiences have a choice of watching movies at home on broadcast, cable or satellite television programming, DVD or by pay-per-view. India’s home video households, currently at three million, are projected to increase to about 13 million by 2010.

Other factors that slow down traffic to theatres are the increasing costs of watching movies, travel, trouble of buying tickets and a perception of lack of enough ‘value’ for the money spent.

HOW TO INCREASE AND DRAW BACK THE VIEWER TO THE THEATRE

With increased customer focus, movie exhibitors can woo the customer back to the theaters and reap benefits over the next 25 years. By easing the process of watching a movie, providing an extra incentive and adding value to the entire proposition, exhibitors stand to gain strategically.

Ease

The movie audience is young and tech savvy. Exhibitors should recognize the need for alternative means of ticket booking through online booking, mobile booking, PDAs, kiosks, ATM booking etc. Once buying movie tickets becomes as simple as clicking on the mouse, sending an SMS or drawing cash from an ATM, the overall transaction value would increase – much as travel has increased in India through online booking.

Extra incentive

By tying up with the food, apparel, music and books to significantly enhance the mall experience, movie exhibitors would gain more box office sales. Some ideas could be:

Providing combos such as a Movie + Dinner Experience (Plus shopping too, retail stores can give special discounts to movie goers to a theatre in their mall)
Providing bulk booking options or simply offer them discounts on a regular basis to drive the traffic
Gifting a Music CD of the movie on Mon-Thu, the movie maker and the exhibitor can promote their products synergistically
A morning Show + Lunch for Kitty Parties to drive bulk sales and start a new trend among the kitty clubs
Evening Show + Dinner for Friends to meet over and enjoy would be a great individualized offer that creates a fine memory
One ticket free for the guys who purchased a book from which the movie was made.

Such models have witnessed phenomenal success because audiences take away some value from the experience, even if they do not enjoy the movie they went for.

Add more ‘value’ to the experience

Exhibitors could add value by providing a home-like experience in the theatre. For example, a Wi-Fi environment could help busy executives while the family is viewing the movie.

Movie watching in theatres could become an experience of the old with such measures as they become experiences to cherish. If the process starts now, it could make a whole new difference to the way the industry grows!