Movie Theatres To Stream Lok Sabha Results 2024 — Will It Be A Hit Or Flop?

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections will reach its finale on June 4, as votes will be counted and the results announced. However, it remains to be seen if the box office numbers for theatres screening the results spark any joy.

According to Ashish Pandey, head of programming and strategic initiatives at Cineline India Ltd.—the company which operates MovieMax—just 150 tickets were bought across MovieMax theatres the night prior to the results day.

"We were anyways just experimenting with it, and so far 140-150 tickets have been bought," Ashish Pandey told NDTV Profit. "But, most purchases happen on the counter just before the screening, so we are waiting for that," he said. However, he is not very "bullish" about sales, he said.

As of 8 p.m. on June 3, only two tickets were sold at MovieMax's theatre at Huma Mall in the suburb of Kanjurmarg in Mumbai, while eight were booked at a theatre in Andheri East, and five at Sion.

MovieMax on Friday announced through social media that it will screen the election results across several cities such as Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur. Apart from these cities in Maharashtra, "we have also got approval to screen the results at our theatre in Rajasthan's Bikaner", Pandey told NDTV Profit. The exhibitor has done a pan-India collaboration with TV News channel Times Navbharat for screening the results.

MovieMax tried this experimental move after the exhibitor received a healthy response from the screening of Ram Mandir consecration ceremony in January. "We are also screening the upcoming T20 cricket tournament, and have received a good response for the India-Pakistan match (scheduled on June 9). 1,000 tickets are already sold," Pandey said.

Pandey denied that the move had anything to do with lower footfalls, amid the rising popularity of over-the-top platforms. In fact, he said that he has seen a recovery in footfalls since the previous fiscal, with quite a number of movie becoming hits.

However, brokerage firms do not share the optimistic view. According to Anand Rathi, the top line of cinema majors have been weaker during the last quarter of the previous fiscal due to fewer footfalls at theatres.

"The general election have dented releases during this quarter, and the situation is likely to stabilise in mid-June," Anand Rathi said in a note. Over-the-top platforms have made audiences more selective, in general, as moviegoers look forward to mass or visually-appealing movies for theatrical releases, it said.

PVR Inox Ltd.'s results indicate the same as the company had reported a 18.7% sequential fall in consolidated top line in the previous quarter, due to lack of strong movie releases in theatres. The company's revenue was at Rs 1,256 crore in the quarter-ended March.

Consequently, cinema exhibitors started screening matches, web shows, and important events to compensate for the declining footfall.