The cumalative business in 2015 for Hindi films fell gain from last year with nett gross of 2650 crore compared to the 2740 crore of last year. A drop of 3.28%. The actual drop is a little lower as its gross business which gives a real picture as entertainment tax structures change sometimes. In 2015 there was a major change in Entertainment tax in the second half of 2015 as the tax in Delhi city doubled. The drop on gross figures is 2.75% apprx.
There was a similar drop in 2013 and in real terms its stagnant business rather than free fall but the big problem is that footfalls are in free fall at the moment. The footfalls were 34.41 crore in 2013, then 31.10 crore in 2014 and this year is set to finish around 28.50 crore.
The footfalls are even lower than 2012 and with costs going up considerably you can't have dropping footfalls. The drop in footfalls is despite Bajrangi Bhaijaan having highest footfalls since 2001. Both PK and Bajrangi Bhaijaan have managed 3.5 crore footfalls and these sort of numbers have never been since 2001. It basically means the audience is growing but for the right films and obviously the right films are not being made as its odd that the biggest films are going past the previous records but cumulative is falling well short. The growth should be all round.
There has been a 17% drop in footfalls in two years and this has to reverse for the industry to even get near to being in good shape. The growth that comes from ticket prices is external and when footfalls grow with this external growth it means a good year for the industry. Also ticket price rises can give just limited growth and even that is stagnating a little as they can't keep going up 10-12% a year and this year saw just 5% growth in ticket rates.
The demographics of the box office have a changed considerably over the last 18 months and that is where the problem is as most films releasing are catering to a sector which has seen no growth but eventually this should change, if not this year then in years to come.
