A movie starring A-list Bollywood stars like Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, or Ajay Devgn would have indicated a respectable opening at the theatres in any other year prior to the epidemic. For screen owners like Inox and PVR, which just gained approval for their merger, there is no such guarantee.
“Due to their long histories, major actors have always been able to draw large crowds to theatres. Content is increasingly the main focus as a result of viewers’ shifting tastes. According to a study by Emkay Research on media and entertainment, these highly regarded celebrities are no longer able to draw viewers just based on their brand names.
Along with Akshay Kumar’s Prithviraaj and Bacchan Pandey, two films starring new-age sensation Ranveer Singh, 83 and Jayeshbhai Jordaar, bombed at the box office.
Bollywood still dominates the box office revenues of theatres despite the strong performances of South Asian films. Approximately 60% of total collections come from it. In 11 of the 16 pre-Covid quarters, Bollywood films had the largest box office take. But this dynamic shifted during the past two quarters.
Only three movies had great box office performances, which indicates that Bollywood’s proportion of successful films fell from 40% to only 10%. Bollywood’s continued failure will have a negative impact on multiplex ad income.
Two regional movies, RRR and KGF Chapter 2, delivered outstanding performances during the past two quarters. Both S. S. Rajamouli’s notoriety following Bahubali and the success of the first instalment of the film contributed to their respective great box office performances. But it appears that a deeper transition is underway.
“The success of Hindi hinterland films like Pushpa shows that audience preferences are changing. The success of regional films, South and non-South, outside of their core regions is often irregular in nature, thus we feel a reversal in Bollywood’s fortunes is essential for maintaining box office collecting growth,” adds Emkay.
The popularity of South Asian films has increased foot traffic at PVR and Inox, although Bollywood remains their main source of revenue.
