(Reuters) – India’s largest multiplex chain PVR Inox reported its third straight quarterly loss on Tuesday, as a ho-hum Bollywood lineup and rising demand for streaming services kept movie-watchers at home.
That hurt box-office collections and food and beverage sales at PVR Inox’s outlets.
The company, formed by the merger of PVR and Inox labels, posted a consolidated net loss of 118 million rupees ($1.40 million) in the quarter ending Sept. 30 versus a year-ago profit of 1.66 billion rupees.
Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 137.7 million rupees, data compiled by LSEG showed.
India’s movie halls have been struggling to fill seats in recent quarters as consumers have curbed discretionary spending amid higher inflation, forcing multiplexes to introduce lower-priced weekday movie passes and cut popcorn prices.
The lack of compelling new movie releases has also added to their agony, making many multiplex chains resort to playing classics to win audiences.
In India, popular streaming platform Disney+ Hotstar is the market leader with 38 million users, while estimates showed Netflix has around 10 million.
PVR Inox’s total revenue fell 19% to 16.22 billion rupees in the September quarter, with movie ticket sales dropping 25% and food and beverage sales 18% lower.
The occupancy rate fell to 25% from 32.3% in the year-ago period.
PVR Inox said it expects to add 110-120 screens in the year ending March 2025. So far this fiscal year, it has added 71 and closed 42 screens.
($1 = 84.0675 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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