Cinema will never die

The Ficci-Frames 2007 evening session was on ‘Exhibition Business: Maximising total theatre profit.’ The moderator was Raj Tilak, chairman of Tilak Movies, while the speakers were Deepak Aisher, director of Inox, Tushar Dhingra of AdLabs, Cario Bernaschi of Anem (Multiplex Exhibitors National Association of Italy), Rasesh Kanakia, chairman Cinemax Cinemas, and Vishal Kapur, COO a fun multiplexes, Tan Ngaronga of Sathyam Cinemas.

Tilak started the session saying, “Cinema will never die. It is larger than life.” Bernaschi said, “I share the view of the moderator that cinema will never die. There will be a big evolution of cinema halls in Italy. The people in Italy have changed there vision of seeing films. Historically, it means going to cinemas has become a less activity. The consumer has a big role in this. The movie schedules are made according to what consumer wants to watch. Youth is most enthusiastic. The motif is not only to watch films but also a sense of entertainment. There will be loyalty issues regarding films. The business of the film is all dependants on software.

Dhingra said, “There is no programming differentiation as it’s the same movie across all multiplexes. We are doing viewing in Adlabs. For example, Disney movie weekend for family entertainment. Children will be shown Disney movies over weekend. We are creating an event for senior citizens called Silver screen in which we are making senior citizens comfortable with added facility like person escorting them to a hall, service to there seat etc. Baby bliss is creating infant /kid friendly environment where parents are seen amongst the peer groups. “

He added that we have done a loyalty programme by tying up with ABN AMRO bank for India’s first entertainment card, which has extended to small customer base. The new world consists of stretching weekends. We can make it across cinemas. We need to release movies on Thursday. We can’t regulate our ticket prices. We are promoting cinema & advertising through their digital medium. We are buying existing old cinemas in Mumbai and renovating them.”

Ngaronga said, “Revenue driver at multiplex is 78 per cent of box office revenue, advertising is 5 per cent, F&B revenue is 15 per cent. On weekends UTI came out with schemes that watch any movie in Sathyam buy one ticket get another free. Loyalty programme is dependant on location to location based programme. There is a 15 per cent rise in Mira road due to loyalty program.”

He added there needs to be alternate revue generation by offering games at multiplex like bungee jumping inside the hall, merchandise sale of Kids clothes of movies like Krish, non film programme for FIFA, World Cup. Innovative branding is important like Zapak did branding in wash rooms of s really successful. The upcoming trends are coalition loyalty programme, Increase distribution channels vs partner, sale of banking vs financial products.

Kapoor said, “Cinema sales are growing inorganically. Cinema sales are up by north 10 per cent. We are moving from plain Vanilla to an over all experience. 60 per cent to 90 per cent of the footfalls are in malls, multiplexes. Some emerging trends are CRM where 30 per cent of our sales come from it. Also create branding opportunities beyond property, contents with better involvement of customers, like Zee Cine Awards, Namaste London. We are running a content in which three winners get a chance to fly to London. On screen and off-screen marketing is getting innovative. On screen category is on a decline. There is a need for independent research body.” Tan further said we need to build fashion of movie going. 3D projection and 3D films are going to be the future.