S Viswanath

The country’s film business took a beating in the year gone by (2024) as audiences preferred to away from their favourite pastime with domestic theatrical revenues taking a 5 per cent hit on fall in admissions to reach ₹187 billion during the year (2024). Incidentally, in the previous year the revenues recorded were ₹197 billion (2023).

This despite the year witnessing over 1,600 films hitting the over 9,000 screens across the country. However, according to FICCI Frames Shape the future: Indian media and entertainment industry is scripting a new story annual Media & Entertainment Industry Report brought out with Ernest & Young hope lies eternal as in the current year (2025) the sector is expected to see a growth with revenues touching ₹196 billion and registering a compounded annual growth rate of 4.3 per cent to touch ₹213 billion by 2027.

Where does this optimism stem from and sliver of rainbow stream for an industry whose digital and satellite rights values also saw a downward fall by 10 per cent in 2024 with broadcast and OTT buyers focussed more on profitability than preferring plethora of releases?

Well, according to the study report the country’s largest multiplex distributor has planned to add 100 new screens in fiscal year 2025, which “we believe that another opportunity exists in filmed entertainment” as also by the fact that low priced theatres in Tier-III and IV markets, aided by the growth in mass-themed films, which are expected to spring up in the medium term. The number of TV screens is projected to increase from 190million in 2024 to 214 million in 2026.

These enabling factors, opines the report, will expand the number of families which can enjoy the theatrical experience from less than 100 million to around 175 million people and with large number of films (1,600) still awaiting a digital release as against just 500 which saw the light of the digital ray. All this is expected to buoy the fortunes and financial health of the otherwise one of larger industry in the world.

According to the report, poor performance of large budget Hindi films, with just 11 grossing ₹1 billion as again 17 in 2023, absence big ticket films of marquee film stars as well as few South Indian films led to the fall in the overall box office collections.

The worrying factor being that just a handful of hits drove the larger proportion of revenues with nearly 70 per cent of total box office earnings coming from just top 10 films. An ominous indicator of the trending factor that either a film is a blockbuster success at the theatre or it tends to completely under-perform.

Likewise, it is noted that, uncertainty and consolidation in the TV segment and cost-cutting exercise undertaken by few large OTT platform also impacted the overall economic growth and business revenues of the industry as a whole.

All this despite the fact that a marginal uptick of 1,823 films (including 204 dubbed films) saw releases in theatres in 2024 across languages and dubbed versions, as compared to 1,796 releases in 2023. The highest number of films released being Telugu(323), Tamil (252), Kannada (242), Hindi (221) and Malayalam (204) it still being 3 per cent lower vis-à-vis while other language releases increased by 11%.

The reasons are not far to seek as to the dismal performances at theatres in wooing the prospective audiences to visit them for an outing at the theatres.

According to the report the industry is encountering challenges in digitalization ticketing and data collection processes, with some single-screen, rural and small-scale theatre chains still relying on manual tickets and data submissions, raising issues around credibility of box office data thereby impacting tax collections.

As a result admissions continued to decline from around 900 million to just over 857 million, a fall of around 5%, though average ticket prices continued to increase from ₹130 in 2023 to ₹134 in 2024.

It was indeed a Southern sonata at the box office says the study with South Indian films leading monetisation as compared to other language ones, with 22 south Indian language films and one Punjabi language film providing the leg up.

Malayalam theatrical revenues it is pointed out grew 104 per cent while Gujarati revenues grew 66 per cent in 2024, while English films (including their dubbed versions) earned a measly 17 per cent less than 2023.

Incidentally, 359 films released across 38 countries, were marginally up from 339movies in the previous year (2023), which were also released in38 countries, says the report.

S VISWANATH is a veteran film critic who officiates as JURY at several National & International Film Festivals. He deputises as CHIEF CINEMA CURATOR/PROGRAMMER & CREATIVE ADVISOR for Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFes). He also curates & advises on the selection of shorts & documentaries for Bengaluru International Short Film Festival (BISFF). Mr Viswanath is the author of “RANDOM REFLECTIONS: A Kaleidoscopic Musings on Kannada Cinema”.