Diwali will witness the release of Salman Khan starrer large scale Hindi film Tiger 3, which is a part of the spy franchise by Yash Raj films. The film is likely to open with a net box office earnings of INR 0.35 billion on the first day and lifetime box office for this movie is estimated to be in the range of INR 3.5-3.8 billion (Net Box Office).
The month of Oct '23 was poor as occupancy levels were in the range of 20-22 per cent as compared to 32.3 per cent in Q2FY24 and 31.8 per cent in FY20 (pre covid times).
A big respite for this quarter has been regional and English content flow, and the release of large budget films like Tiger, Animal and Dunki.
Furthermore, occupancy levels in Q3FY24 have been speculated to move towards 26-27 per cent (lower 530 bps QoQ and 480 bps vs pre covid levels), which can lead to a 9M occupancy of ~27 per cent for PVRINOX.
However, with little or no flow of Hollywood content in Q4FY24 due to the Writer Association strike, occupancy in Q4 could potentially be lower vs expectations
Recent releases in Hindi were dismal with films like Mission Raniganj and Ganapath Part 1 reporting below par Box Office of INR 32.6mn and INR 12.7mn respectively (lifetime). Notably, Hindi films not performing consistently has become a challenge for sustaining occupancy towards pre covid levels.
Hindi Box Office is slated to move towards pre COVID levels in Q3FY24, led by a few large budget films which are slated to release in Nov/Dec’23