Indian box office loses Rs 15,000 crores due to the pandemic: Report

Compared to gross box office of almost Rs 11,000 crores in 2019, the cumulative revenue across 2020 and 2021 put together stood at only Rs 5,757 crores.

Media consulting firm Ormax Media has released its annual report, titled The Ormax Box Office Report 2020-21. The report looks at the Indian box office across languages, highlighting key trends in the theatrical sector. Because of theatres being shut for several months during the pandemic, Ormax Media has released a combined edition for the two pandemic-impacted years (2020 and 2021).

The report analyses the impact of the pandemic on the Indian box office.

If 2019 is taken as the benchmark, the Indian film industry lost at least Rs 15,000 crores at the box office because of the pandemic. The footfalls also came down from 103.0 crores in 2019 to 22.5 crores and 42.7 crores in 2020 and 2021 respectively.

The pandemic years also saw significant changes in the share of different language industries within the Indian film industries. With 29 per cent share of box office (2020 and 2021 cumulative), the Telugu language industry took the top position, ahead of Hindi, whose share declined from 44 per cent to 27 per cent.

Four Telugu films (Pushpa, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, Sarileru Neekevvaru and Vakeel Saab) feature in the top 10 films across the two years, compared to only three Hindi films (Tanhaji, Sooryavanshi and 83). Spider-Man: No Way Home (Hollywood), Master and Darbar (both Tamil) complete the top 10 list.

Shailesh Kapoor, founder and chief executive officer - Ormax Media, said, “The pandemic has severely impacted the Indian box office, with five out of the eight quarters in 2020 and 2021 having zero or negligible business, because of theatres being shut in all or most parts of India. The good news is that the last quarter of 2021 (October-December) saw excellent recovery, registering a gross box office of more than Rs 2,000 crores, which reaffirms that the theatrical business is very much here to say.”

Gautam Jain, partner, Ormax Media, said, “The cumulative share of the four South languages went up from 36 per cent in 2019 to 59 per cent in 2020 and 2021, highlighting how these industries managed to navigate through the pandemic with more relative success than Hindi films. While we can expect Hindi cinema to stage a recovery in 2022, the rise of South cinema is a story to watch out for.”