Mumbai: Box office numbers reach Rs 4,200 crore during January-April recording the cinema exhibition industry’s best performance post-Covid, as per a report by cinema advertising company Interactive Television, GroupM India and media consulting firm Ormax Media.

The report titled ‘India is back…at the theatres’ found that average monthly box office collections stood at Rs 1,000 crore. “These milestones have been achieved despite the impact of the third wave and 18 percent of cinemas still being closed since 2019,” said the statement.

“K.G.F: Chapter 2” is the best performing film of the quarter with Rs 1,008 crore in collections so far, followed by “RRR” and “The Kashmir Files” with gross collections of Rs 875 crore and Rs 293 crore, respectively. The report also indicates that in-cinema footballs have recovered compared to 2019 levels.

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While there were no Hollywood blockbusters released during January-April, the report indicates that with the strong line-up of Hollywood movies slated for the rest of the year, 2022 collections may surpass 2019 gross box office collections of Rs 1,595 crore for Hollywood movies. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” which was released in May has done very well and upcoming films such as “Avatar: The Way of Water”, “Thor: Love and Thunder”, and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” are expected to beat previous records.

The future of regional cinema namely Marathi and Punjabi cinema looks positive with four Marathi films crossing rupees one crore in their opening weekend collection. Hindi cinema contributed 38 per cent to the box office and almost 60 per cent of this share comes from Hindi dubbed versions of South India films, primarily “K.G.F: Chapter 2” and “RRR”.

GroupM South Asia CEO Prasanth Kumar, said “It is good to see the cinemas back on track. Five months into this year and we are seeing very promising numbers in terms of box office collection and consumer footfalls in the theatres. Movies have always been India’s favourite source of entertainment and this year looks very optimistic to us in terms of recovery, following two years of slowdown due to covid. This report will help advertisers plan their campaigns appropriately and it will help revive the in-cinema advertising domain which in turn will help recover the previously slowed down economy.”

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Interactive Television (iTV) founder and managing director & Kinetic India managing director Ajay Mehta said, “With the return of audience into the cinemas, we are also seeing major advertiser interest picking up on where it was left in 2019. We have already seen more than 350 brands active in cinema and with the festive season, we expect it to go much beyond that. The operating capacity of the cinema halls is set to cross the 90 per cent mark by mid-year. With several big-ticket releases planned across languages for the rest of 2022, we are very optimistic about this year’s cinema AdEx (advertising expenditure) as India comes back to its favourite entertainment hub.”

The report states that 2022 is expected to be the strongest year ever at the Indian box office. With the resurgence of cinema, the medium is also attracting advertisers from various spectrums of the industry. As per GroupM, around 280 brands advertised their products/services in the opening week of “K.G.F: Chapter 2”.

“Over the last two years, when cinemas were shut due to the pandemic, many analysts were quick to write an obituary of the theatrical medium,” said Ormax Media founder and CEO Shailesh Kapoor.

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“The first four months of 2022 have proven how far removed from reality that analysis was. The theatrical medium has not only bounced back but emerged as stronger than it has been in decades. 2022 will be the biggest box office year till date, and by a good margin too,” he added.