India’s PVR Inox eyes record quarterly footfalls on strong film slate, tax cuts

India’s PVR Inox expects record quarterly footfalls at its multiplexes for the rest of the fiscal year, banking on promotions, federal tax cuts and a strong content slate to draw moviegoers, a senior executive told Reuters on Monday.

A pipeline of hits - both from Hollywood and Bollywood - have brightened prospects in 2025 for multiplex operators including PVR Inox, which logged record footfalls during the July-September quarter with a 15% year-on-year increase to nearly 45 million people.

PVR Inox was formed by a merger of PVR and Inox labels in early 2023.

High footfalls are poised to continue until March 2026, supported by the government’s cut to the Goods and Services Tax, said Executive Director Sanjeev Bijli in an interview with Reuters. He also cited prospects of upcoming releases such as Hollywood’s “Wicked: For Good”, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” and Indian films such as “Tere Ishk Mein” and “Dhurandhar”.

“The movie lineup is very good… I think we are optimistic and supported by the fact that GST reduction has given people extra propensity to spend on films,” Bijli said.

Bijli expects spends per head on food and beverages to rise between 4% and 6% during October to March - an estimate he says is “conservative”, after a 3.6% growth in first half of the fiscal year.

In the previous year, footfalls in cinema halls had been pressurized by weak urban spending, an uneven slate of blockbusters and growing competition from streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon’s Prime.

To win audiences back, PVR had re-released popular, older movies such as Bollywood’s “Silsila” and “Jab We Met”. The company also offers discounted tickets on Tuesdays starting at 92 rupees ($1.05).

PVR Inox’s annual total revenue fell 5% to 58.75 billion rupees in the fiscal year ended March 2025. Bijli said he expects the revenue decline to reverse.

“It can definitely not be last year anymore… it looks to be a good year.”