EXCLUSIVE: India’s theatrical market is one of the few in Asia that has outstripped pre-pandemic revenues, despite the growth of streaming, the slowdown in the Hollywood pipeline and all the other factors that have hampered box office in other international territories. In 2025, box office reached a record-breaking $1.48BN, due to a string of Hindi and regional hits including Dhurandhar and the Kantara prequel.
The country’s biggest cinema chain, PVR Inox, is also coming off a record financial year with annual revenues of $700M (INR67.43BN) of which 52% came from ticket sales and around 30% from food & beverages (F&B). The company also reported profit of $40M (INR3.87BN) for the financial year ending March 2026, whittling down debt incurred at the time of the merger between PVR Cinemas and Inox, India’s two biggest cinema chains, in 2023.
Sitting down with Deadline, PVR Inox executive director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli explains that India has suffered less from inconsistent film supply than some other territories – with local films picking up the slack following the Hollywood strikes and regional films keeping the turnstiles spinning when Hindi cinema slowed down a few years back. Now Hindi films are back in a big way, with Jio Studios’ Dhurandhar and its sequel, released this year, grossing around $320M between them, and Hollywood staging a comeback with several hits last year and so far in 2026.
“We’re pretty happy with the way things are going, because every time a good film comes along, all the other producers try to better that, so now everyone is trying to make the next Dhurandhar,” says Bilji, who runs PVR Inox with his brother Ajay Bijli and CEO Gautam Dutta. “In the last few years, big producers like Dharma and Excel secured funding, so investment is coming in, and that’s the strange but wonderful thing about this industry – it never seems to run out of money.”
Bijli explains that the circuit has a 35-50% share of box office for local movies, but a much higher 60-70% share of more multiplex-friendly English-language films. Hollywood titles usually account for around 10-15% of overall Indian box office, which is ruled by Hindi, Telugu and Tamil movies, but last year Avatar: Fire And Ash charted in the top ten and this year titles including Project Hail Mary, Michael and Obsession have all performed well.
But behind the headline figures, analysts have been quick to point out that increased theatrical revenues are mostly due to an increase in average ticket prices, while admissions have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, admissions stood at 832 million, a decrease of around 19% compared to 1.03 billion in 2019.
Bijli says this speaks to the changing nature of cinema attendance, with premium formats pushing up average ticket prices and audiences becoming more selective about what they’ll leave home to see. PVR Inox is working with around ten premium brands, including Luxe Insignia, Imax, 4DX and Screen X, as well as providing luxury auditoriums and gourmet F&B. “We’ve established from this year’s trends that premium formats are here to stay, because they differentiate the viewing experience from what you get at home, and there’s a big market for that in India,” Bijli says.
“We really believe in the big screen experience. We want to give customers a reason to leave their homes and get the best of technology, the best sound, the best projection. Of course the movie also has to be good. But you can’t have bad cinemas and expect the audience to come.”
He adds that while streaming is obviously having an impact, it’s not hitting exactly the same way in India as in some other territories, as many producers are shifting back to a theatrical-first release strategy as cinemas regain monetization power over digital-first releases.
“Streaming seems to be replacing traditional TV, but not theatrical, because Indian audiences still want that cinema experience,” Bijli says. “It’s still a friends and family-driven activity and there’s not that many family activities, especially in summer. I think the water has found its level, and we might not be back at pre-Covid levels, but people do want new films, and they want to watch them on a big screen.”
Looking forward, Bijli says the company is focused on increasing screen count – it currently operates 1,798 screens across 359 sites in more than 110 cities – by opening new cinemas in Tier 2 and Tier cities and expanding in the South. This will be achieved through a “capital-light” strategy, in which PVR Inox co-invests in new cinema builds with the mall developers that house the theatres, enabling the company to reduce capital exposure and see a faster return on investment.
“We explain to our partners that when a big film comes along, everything goes crazy – the mall’s foot traffic increases, retailing, restaurants, they all benefit – so we need them to invest with us in the cinema infrastructure. It’s similar to the model that big brands like McDonald’s or Zara have used in the past.”
The circuit also negotiates with developers about a model in which they receive a share of box office in return for lower rent: “We’re saying, don’t look at us as another tenant, look at us as someone who irrigates the mall. We weren’t doing this pre-Covid, because we were on a treadmill and everything was working, but in the last four years we’ve done a lot of restructuring of our rental deals, so it doesn’t hit the bottom line.”
And while film supply has not been the biggest issue in India, the company is also experimenting with alternative programming – everything from streaming concerts, IPL cricket matches and some of the ongoing FIFA World Cup matches, to live events through the PVR Inox ‘Live On Stage’ program that recently involved a Pride Month special with trans performer Rani KoHEnur. “We’re trying different things – it doesn’t contribute much to our bottom line, but some things work well and it’s good to do these things.”
But movies remain the circuit’s main source of revenue and that is unlikely to change. The company also operates a distribution arm, PVR Inox Pictures, which has an output deal with Lionsgate and acquires films from the international film market and festival circuit. “We do almost all the FilmNation films – we recently bought a package from them, and one I’m really looking forward to is I Play Rocky, which looks amazing, so we’ll release that in November,” Bijli says. “We released Marty Supreme for A24, which did very well, and we’ve got Paper Tiger [ handled by The Veterans] out of Cannes.”
Outside of Cannes official selection, PVR Inox acquired several films during this year’s Cannes Marche du Film, including two from Patrick Wachsberger’s 193 – Fernando Meirelles’ Art, starring Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell and Wagner Moura, and Doug Limon’s Bitcoin with Gal Gadot and Casey Affleck – along with three horror films from Neon – 4×4: The Event, It Ends and The Young People, the latter starring Nicole Kidman.
The Cannes haul also includes five FilmNation titles: Karim Ainouz’ Last Dance with Adrian Body and Rachel Ziegler, Edward Zwick’s Asymmetry (Richard Gere), Magnus von Horn’s The Passenger (Jeremy Strong), 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank (Liam Neesom) and animation Wildwood, with voice cast including Carey Mulligan and Marshahala Ali.
Bijli says that independent films from outside India usually need a big star or director to land with local audiences, but the company also started acquiring Japanese anime when it realized that audiences were clamoring for these films.
“We could see through social media comments, social listening, that there was massive demand for [Makoto Shinkai’s] Suzume, so we flew to Japan to meet with Toho,” Bijli says. “Indian audiences are aware of what movies are out there – the world has become so small because of the internet – and we’re conscious of getting all kinds of cinema to them. Some work, some don’t, but we try to get quality films from the markets.”
However, when it comes to local independent cinema, the landscape is more complicated. At this year’s Cannes film festival, a group of more than 120 Indian filmmakers launched the Independent Filmmakers Association of India (IFAI) to lobby for improved theatrical and streaming access for indie films. While screen access has been a long-running issue for Indian indies, the association’s launch was prompted by the struggles faced by Kanu Behl’s Agra, which premiered in Cannes Directors Fortnight in 2023, but was unable to secure prime showtimes when released in India in late 2025.
Bijli says the circuit has played other Indian independent films – All We Imagine As Light, Boong, Humans In The Loop and Shape Of Momo – and points to the company’s long-standing association with Mumbai Film Festival and its year-round screening programme MAMI Independent, which is currently screening international arthouse films like No Other Choice and Sentimental Value at PVR Lido in Juhu.
“Our commitment extends beyond exhibition to strengthening the cinema ecosystem and institutions like MAMI play a vital role in building a vibrant theatrical culture,” Bijli says. “Our long-standing association with MAMI reflects this shared vision, and we’re proud to support the festival not only as a venue but also as a partner in growing India’s community of cinephiles.”
As Deadline was going to press on this article, India’s theatrical market was heading into one of its most tentpole-laden seasons, over the summer and leading into the Diwali holiday season in November, with big upcoming local films including Jana Nayagan, Tamil star Vijay’s final film before embarking on a career in politics; Amazon MGM Studios’ first major Indian theatrical release, Raftaar, starring Rajkummar Rao; and Geetu Mohandas’s Toxic starring Yash. Even better news for cinemas – Shah Rukh Khan’s King, the star’s first film since Dunki in 2023, is scheduled for release at the end of the year.
Expectations are also high for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, opening this weekend, as Nolan has a huge fanbase in India where he filmed part of Tenet. Nolan and The Odyssey stars Matt Damon and Tom Holland were in India earlier this week for a premiere event, before which they were photographed enjoying chai and snacks at a South Mumbai café.
Of course, audience behavior is impossible to predict in this volatile post-pandemic landscape, but in India at least, there is hope that the theatrical experience has a bright future, which is probably why Nolan always makes time for Indian audiences. And while exhibitors like PVR Inox are operating in a very different world to the one they experienced in 2019, it’s not totally unrealistic for them to hope the same.
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