Ladies and Gentlemen, good day and welcome to PVR INOX Limited Q1FY25 results conference call hosted by Axis Capital Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Ankur Periwal. Thank you and over to you, Mr. Ankur.
Thanks. Look, good evening friends and welcome to PVR INOX Limited Q1 FY25 Post Result Earnings Call. The call will start with a brief.
Management discussion on the earnings performance followed by an interactive Q&A session. PVR INOX Management will be represented by Mr. Ajay Bijli, Managing Director, Mr. Sanjeev.
Kumar, Executive Director, Mr. Nitin Sood, Group Chief Financial Officer.
CFO, Mr. Gaurav Sharma, Head of Investor.
Relations and Corporate Finance and other senior management personnel.
Over to you, Mr. Bijli, for the initial comments.
Thanks very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Like to invite you all to discuss the unaudited results for the quarter ending June 30, 2024. We uploaded our earnings presentation and results on our company's and the stock exchanges' websites last Friday, and I hope you've had a chance to review them. This quarter's results got impacted by the 2024 general elections, which were the largest, second longest polling exercise in India's electoral history lasting 44 days in April and May. This prompted many producers to postpone from releases, resulting in a 13% drop in the number of releases in the quarter as compared to the first quarter of last year. We also witnessed a sharp decline in the number of blockbusters with only three films crossing the INR 100 crore mark compared to seven last year.
June dominated the quarter at the box office with both mid and big budget movies performing well. The horror comedy Munjya grossed over INR 110 crore and Chandu Champion, a biopic on India's first Paralympic gold medalist Murlikant Petkar, earned more than INR 75 crore. But the real game changer was Kalki. Released at the very end of June, it became the year's biggest movie so far, pulling in nearly 16% of the quarter's total box office in just four days and grossing over INR 1,000 crore globally till date. The outstanding performance of both big and small films demonstrates that audiences are eager for high quality content regardless of the film's budget or the star cast. With Kalki spillover and the visibility of a great lineup ahead across languages. Q2 has started off on a great note. We see no other major event disruptions that could hamper the release calendar.
Even Hollywood is rebounding with the impact of the writer and actor strikes now starting to fade away. We welcomed 30.4 million guests across our cinemas in Q1 FY25. In terms of financial results for the quarter, the following numbers are after adjusting for the impact of Ind AS 116 on lease accounting. Total revenues for the quarter was INR 1,209 crores, EBITDA loss was INR 20 crores and PAT loss was INR 137 crores as compared to revenues of INR 1,324 crores, the EBITDA of INR 100 crores and PAT loss of INR 44 crores in the same period last year. In the upcoming months we have several exciting Hindi movies to be released. Last week we had Bad Newz starring Vicky Kaushal, Triptii Dimri. In August we have Stree 2 starring Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao, Vedaa starring John Abraham, Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha starring Ajay Devgn and Tabu.
In September we have Emergency starring Kangana Ranaut, The Buckingham Murders starring Kareena Kapoor Khan. In October we have Deva starring Shahid Kapoor, Jigra starring Alia Bhatt. In November we have sequels to successful franchises like Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 starring Kartik Aaryan, again Ajay Devgn, Dhadak 2 starring Triptii Dimri and in December we have Sitaare Zameen Par, Aamir Khan's comeback and Baby John starring Varun Dhawan. Pushpa 2: The Rule starring Allu Arjun is releasing in December and is expected to be a mega blockbuster. Other notable releases from regional languages include Raayan starring Dhanush in July, Double i Smart with Sanjay Dutt and Ram Pothineni. In August, The Greatest of All Time starring Vijay, Lucky Baskhar, Barroz, Devara: Part 1, Vettaiyan starring Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Kanguva starring Suriya and Thandel starring Naga Chaitanya Akkineni. In October, Hollywood is touting Deadpool & Wolverine, which releases this coming weekend as the biggest global of 2024.
Even our circuit has seen a very strong advance booking for the film. Other notable releases of Hollywood are M. Night Shyamalan's Trap, Alien: Romulus, Borderlands, Speak No Evil, Transformers One, Wolf Man, Joker 2, Smile 2, Venom: The Last Dance, Gladiator II, Red One, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, Kraven the Hunter and Mufasa: The Lion King. We launched the PVR INOX Passport 2.0 on March 18 and have seen a tremendous response to the revised program. During the quarter as impacted as Q1, we sold 250,000 passports. We expect this program to gain momentum with improved content release visibility. On the growth front, the company opened 50 new screens and exited 14 underperforming screens resulting in a net addition of 36 screens during the quarter.
For FY25, the company expects to open 120 new screens and exit 70 screens resulting in the net addition of 50 new screens. As guided last quarter, we are being selective in new screen additions and gradually implementing a capitalised growth model by partnering with developers and jointly investing in new screen CapEx. Our screen portfolio including 42 management screens stands at 1,754 screens across 361 cinemas in 110 malls and 13 cities in India and Sri Lanka. Now I'd like to open the platform for any Q&A. Thanks once again for joining.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Mr. Avnish Roy from Nuvama. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks. My first question is on the ticket pricing. So you are trying to have flexible pricing. So if you could tell us how has been the success? Any tweaking needed there? Second is this new law which came on Karnataka that 1%-2% cess can be put on the ticket pricing and all other revenue related to the establishment. Would you be worried on this given the weak footfalls? Could this get copied in other states and what can the.
Industry do to prevent this?
Given in GST, lot of the tax reforms happened. Now somehow again Cess etc. is coming back.
Kamal would like to take this question.
Kamal, would you like to take the article?
Since you're representing the Multiplex Association of India, I think you are best in best position to answer this question.
You know, answering the second question first, this is a media report. We, you know, we've been in touch with the government officers. We reached out to the relevant authorities, and so far there is no confirmation that this is a definitive government order. We are also in touch with the local cinema chains, and we are also in touch with the film council, the KFC, which is the apex body for the Kannada film industry, and we are aligned that this is something which is detrimental to the industry. It sets the wrong example. The promise of GST, where we said there will be one tax, you know, across the country. This defeats the whole purpose of GST, and therefore we are confident that we would be able to make the relevant ministries, state government ministries, and the relevant government officers see our point of view.
But at this point in time, this is not a definitive order. It's a media report which we are trying to establish whether there is, how much weight is there in this sort of decision which the media report has spoken about. So that's the answer to the first question. But please be assured that we continue to monitor this situation very, very closely. On the flexi ticket pricing, we've had flexi ticket pricing forever. We've always, you know, use pricing as a lever. We practice variable ticket pricing depending on the films, depending on the locations, depending on days, weekend, weekdays, even within the days. We've got different variable pricing for different shows.
What you have seen in this quarter is the lack of blockbusters and as you know, for Giga stars, the consumer's willingness, the curiosity around the film and therefore the willingness to pay a little higher ticket price is much more for bigger films than the obvious blockbusters. We were lacking bigger films for the reasons that Mr. Bijli spoke about in his opening comments, which is the reason you've seen muted ticket pricing post Kalki, which released towards the end of June. We've seen very strong uptick in the average ticket price and we continue to sort of build on that momentum as we move forward in July, August, September. So if you have any follow up questions, happy to answer. But we've had flexible ticket pricing all along.
Yeah, one small follow-up essentially on Karnataka. So in case something of this comes to fruition, a legal remedy, either from the courts or say any tax authority, could that be one of the options?
Legal is always an option, but one will have to see the details and one will have to see what the government order is about. It would be, I mean the legal remedy can only be discussed once the government order comes out, but it's always an option. Sure.
My second and last question is on the impact of election. So one apparel listed retailer also said exactly same thing. Of course they said that a lot of the elections voting was there on weekends. So of course that is the prime time for the customer coming to the mall. Second of course is this time it was extended which you also alluded to. Just want to understand in 2014 and 2019 what kind of impact if you could remember was there.
I understand that this time the election phase may not have been this extended. Second related question is on the content.
Apart in Q4 also we saw that overall content pipeline planning was not to the desired level due to whatever reason. Again, in Q1 because of election, yes, the fear factor was there, the heat wave was also there. But overall, would you say that the pipeline, content pipeline planning that is now.
Fully addressed.
Because ultimately everyone is suffering because of that. Would you say that that issue is now resolved?
I think the impact of election in 2019, 2014. We don't recall the specifics, but the major impact in this election was that the producers took a view that they wanted to avoid clashing with the election dates and therefore they decided they will come out with their releases, especially the bigger films, after the elections get over. The issue also got compounded by the fact that we had the World Cup T20 running at the pretty much at the same time. And that also, you know, sort of compounded the whole decision making around the releases. From what we can recall, 2019, similar situation, producers wanted to stay away from the election date and therefore a lot of bigger films were postponed. But apart from that, any sort of.
Visible impact, any tangible impact of election?
On the films which were playing in theaters? Not much. As far as. What was the second question? Do you want to repeat, please?
Yes, the whole pipeline planning in terms.
Of releases, I understand fear factor of elections. I fully understand that. But even in Q4 there were a lot of weeks when there was no content and then maybe some weeks there.
Was too much content.
That issue always can remain. I'm just asking in terms of planning, are we in a better situation now because everyone is suffering because of that?
I think we continue to improve. The trend line is definitely positive. As you know, last two years, if one was to look at post-COVID, things have improved and there are tangible improvements in the producer sentiment, the number of films which they're green lighting. But we believe that we have scope to get better. Fortunately Q2, Q3 and Q4 is looking fairly strong also partly because a lot of films which were coming in Q1 were pushed to Q2 or Q3. Therefore it's looking fairly crowded. But we believe the next calendar year and the next financial year is when the content pipeline will be fully back to where it used to be pre.
COVID
and one last follow-up if I can in terms of content only. What we are also seeing is although content pipeline may be good marketing or movie has been a big challenge either because a lot of producers may not have made good money last 4, 5 years because of various reasons. So they are compromising on the marketing aspect.
Ultimately in consumption.
What is the answer to this? Is there some better planning, better allocation of budgeting towards the marketing? Also because if product is good and it is available, but if there is no marketing, then how do you get the footfall?
I think firstly, the clear consensus among the producers is that the theatrical release delivers unparalleled level of promotional impact and quality perception. It also strengthens the consumer interest to see films improve. The long term recall value leads to the, you know, better sort of revenues from the other distribution channels. So the producers are firmly with theatrical platform. There is a broad consensus but fairly unanimous consensus that theatrical is the way to go in terms of marketing strategy. I mean, you know, there have been films where people like Mr. Shah Rukh Khan who have been seen as a marketing wizard took a call to sort of promote the film in a manner where he felt if he promoted less, that will create more curiosity. And that strategy worked out well for him. A lot of other producers followed a similar strategy.
It didn't work out for them. Kalki went out with, you know, high decibel marketing campaign. All sorts of media platforms had Kalki, and of course the film was a good film. There was a lot of curiosity. It worked out well. This high decibel marketing strategy worked out well for Kalki. So I think it's a mixed bag. We have to appreciate that all producers want the best for themselves and producers. Most producers that we have conversations with don't want to be pennywise pound foolish. They want to go aggressive in terms of market.
Thank you. You're very helpful.
Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we request you to please restrict yourself to two questions for participant. The next question is from the line of Mr. Jinesh Joshi from Prabhudas Lilladher Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, sir. My first question is on our top line. If I look at our NDOC and FNB revenue, it is down in this quarter. Despite that we have seen our ad revenue which is up by about 4.6%. So has there been any revision in ad rate? That is question one. And also in that context, would you like to share any update on the ad free movie campaign that we had.
Launched in the last quarter?
So actually on the advertising revenue, we did have Kalki which opened exceedingly well for advertisers. We saw a very strong traction on that even to the extent of some of the other films while we were not able to maximize on Munjya because that was slated to be a very small film but ended up giving us a substantial footfall. But Bade Miyan Chote Miyan was an average performer but Kalki really stood out and did well overall as well. We looked at not only on screen but off screen, you know, sponsorship deals with certain clients where we were playing classics and revisited. So because of all of that effort, the team was able to deliver this 5% growth. We hope that going forward in Q2 and Q3 in conjunction to some of the bigger releases, the advertising revenue should grow.
Well.
Sure, sir. Any update on that ad-free movie campaign which you would want to share?
So actually last film, if you remember we had gone out and done it in 8 properties across 36 screens which account for up to about 2% of the total volume of screens. And we had very clearly stated that this is an experiment that would take about 3 to 4 quarters before which we will have no clear indicators. So that's all I can share.
With you the first quarter of this.
Experiments are showing some positive signs but no concrete proof of saying that this is how it should go. We are trying many combinations permutations with the pricing and seeing how the consumers are kind of willing to to pay slightly higher for no ads being screened in the store. So I think it's currently inconclusive and we would take a couple of more quarters to get back on how this is performing.
Sure, sir. My second question is on our box office. So I'm referring to Slide 8 of our presentation. So basically depicts that our share in box office for regional movies considerably lower than Bollywood and Hollywood. So is it attributable to higher number of single screens in South India or is there something more to it?
Sort of asking because 35%-40% of our new screen openings is expected to be in South India. So is this share from here on going to change materially given that our expansion plan in South is.
Yes?
Answer is yes, the penetration of single screens is more in south.
Sure, sure.
Also just one follow-up, I think there were some single screens which were shut down in Telangana for a few days in May 2024 due to a weak content flow. Any other region did it witness closure and did we close any of our screens in that state?
We didn't close any cinemas. I mean we do, you know we do shut down screens to upgrade them or to do some maintenance work but due to content we've not shut any screens in Q1. These single screens which shut shop we would not be able to comment.
Just to add, while we did not close down any screen, we did reduce the number of shows per screen. Whenever we would get slightly weak content, we would be playing three or maybe two shows a day.
Sure, sir, got that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Arun Prasad from Avendus Capital. Please go ahead.
Good evening, thanks for the opportunity. My first question is on the fixed OpEx. If you look at it on a per screen basis, despite sequentially we had a lower top line, our fixed expense on a per screen basis almost remain same. Is there any, ideally, some kind of a revenue share impact could have resulted in the lower revenue. And also, occupancy is also slightly higher. Just wanted to understand what's happening out here.
So on our, you know, fixed costs. Actually if you look at our total fixed cost has gone up by 7% compared to last year quarter one and if we further break that down into like-for-like same store basis the same store growth is only about 2.5%. So we have been, you know, very careful around the overall fixed cost control on, you know, all overheads including personnel, electricity, utility, water, etc. On rentals, you know, on same store basis it is about 3.5% up which is in line with our escalations of reading the lease agreements. So about 4%-4.5% is coming on account of new cinemas that we've opened in the last one year.
Many of the new properties that we've opened are large properties in premium locations, 14 screen multiplexes in different parts of the country where rentals and some of the other overheads are slightly higher than the rest of the portfolio. So on an overall basis there is a 7% increase that we see in.
Our total fixed cost.
Okay, just to understand, you're saying the escalation is around 2%-2.5% and some of the old.
Screens,
sorry, 3.7, 3.7% escalation on same cinemas over last one year.
Okay.
Also the new screens which got open and which replace probably the closed screens in the base quarter is having much higher rental. That's the remaining parts.
Right, right, right.
Most of the new screens that got open, that's again on a. Because we have been talking about the different revenue models where it will be fully variableized. So these new screens are not in the variable OpEx model.
The new screens we've opened in the last one year they have been on our regular model of leases where most of it is on minimum guarantee or revenue share, whichever is higher. The capital light asset light model that we are talking about which is more on variable rentals is going forward basis where we are negotiating new properties under, you know, the new model. But there are still, you know, some properties where we are out of lock-in period, where we are, you know, which they are underperforming or the performance is not up to mark. We are renegotiating rentals there. So some bit of benefit on rental renegotiations appearing in our overall rental cost.
This new property which is in the original lease model where we are fixed or revenue share, whichever is higher is the MG portion is so high that even in a weak quarter like this, fixed expense is very high. Is it because of the location or is it something else?
Yes, they are largely in locations like we've opened in, you know, a 5-screen multiplex in INOX Maison in Mumbai which is, you know, the top end.
Of the property market.
When we opened a 12-screen multiplex in Forum Kanakapura, Bengaluru, 14-screen multiplex in Pune with Phoenix, a 14-screen multiplex in Bengaluru with Phoenix. So all these locations are, you know, high-end malls, premium locations and rents are slightly higher than rest of the portfolio that we are operating.
Understood? Understood. My second question is on the last two years, if I take FY2023 and 2024 together, we closed, we open roughly around 300 screens on a gross basis, not on net basis, on a gross basis. So how many of this is already, you think you have seen it already, turned it around or kind of break even a little? What percentage? Or is it usually? We usually take around 2, 2.5 years. So most of this should be profitable or still it's a long way from profitability for these new screens.
You know, the new screens that we open, depending on the market where they are open and the type of format takes different, you know, different time to break even. Typically they start becoming profitable at EBITDA level, at cinema EBITDA level within, you know, 6-9 months of opening and you know, payback periods etc. again vary depending on where the screen is and what sort of formats they are operating.
All these new screens we opened in the last year is already kind of break even.
At the screens that we have opened in the last 6-9 months.
They are still maturing.
So a few of them would be positive, a few of them are still lower. But majority of the screens that we opened a year ago, they are at a cinema level profitable.
Finally on the re-releases or reruns. Understand this usually happens in the content is kind of weak. But do you see that there is an opportunity here along the about the re-releases. Given the nostalgic, you know, releases. No. Nostalgia creates it in the people. Is it something that we can expect more going forward? And.
This is something that we've been doing for many years. But we believe that we need to be a lot more consistent. In fact we have now internal resource aligned to sort of curate these film festivals at the regional level as well. You will see a lot more re-releases happening. This quarter we contributed close to about 12 lakh admissions coming in from re-releases itself. So we believe that this is a funnel which should be truly irrigated. We will be working on this very rigorously now going forward.
And this re-release s across all geographies or only to specific pockets
or all geographies?
And then.
This revenue share is how this is shared with the producer, the usual manner, or it's like a different?
Well, I mean this is sensitive information. We typically don't share it with. We don't put it out in public domain. But these are very sort of competitive terms much more beneficial to us.
Okay.
Better than usual rate cards we have on a week on weekday basis.
Understood. Thank you very much. All the best.
Ladies and gentlemen, we request you to please restrict yourself to two questions for participant. The next question is from the line of Mr. Vivekanand Subbaraman from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead.
I.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Two questions here. One.
Ajay, I know in your recent interviews you have spoken extensively about the windowing periods being very very less in India. You spoke about how TVOD as a window exists in the developed countries. That's not the case in India. Where have you reached in your discussions with the producers, some of whom have been very vocal in agreeing with you on this in terms of the windows and when can we expect the alignment to happen between South India where it is still a 4-week window versus rest of India? That's question one. Secondly, is there any update that you have to share you want to share on the joint venture you have to set up these 5, 6 food courts with Devyani International. Have you finalized the cities or catchment areas? Any details there would be very helpful.
Thank you.
I'll take the first question on windows and then I'll request Gaurav to address the second question on windows for Hindi, English and a few other languages including Punjabi. We follow 8-week window for the south region. It varies but it typically tends to be minimum four weeks. We've had some positive conversations with respect to increasing windows making them consistent across the country. We would not put any timelines to it. All I would say is that like I mentioned before that there is broad consensus amongst the producers that theatrical platform is of paramount importance to them from marketing perspective, from customer satisfaction perspective, from satisfying their creative talent, be it actors and directors and for generating more income in the downstream other distribution channels. So they are extremely positive on the long term sustainability of theatrical platform. They want to support it in every way possible.
We are still recovering from COVID. A lot of producers are still sort of grappling to put together profitability plans on their films.
So, therefore, difficult to put a timeline to this.
But all I can say is that there is positivity and there is consensus that windows moving forward should be consistent across the. Gaurav, you want to take the second one?
Sure.
As an update on our JV on the food court business with Devyani International, we have already set up the JV company. The company has been registered by the name of Devyani PVR INOX Food Courts Limited. We've also finalized a brand name for the food courts that will be set up in the shopping malls. We will be calling it Treat Junction as a brand for all the food courts in the next 2-3 months. We expect at least 2 food courts to be fully operational. The locations have been identified. We will provide an update once we announce the opening of the food courts. And you know, by the end of this fiscal about 4-5 food courts will be operational.
Right. Just one follow up on the harmonization.
Of the windowing period across the country.
How soon can we expect this?
Is this a one year thing?
Do you think it will happen in 3 years or will it take as?
long as five years?
Just to understand the urgency in this process because it's not that only the multiplexes are suffering, right? The producers also I think are coming.
Around to this perspective.
We are very keen to make it consistent across the country. We are also keen to increase the window from 8-week to a longer duration. There is a lot of urgency. There have been several discussions with all stakeholders. As you know, we function with multiple different industries over coexisting and cooperating adjacent to each other. So Telugu is a separate industry with their own ecosystem, Tamil is a separate industry and so on, so forth. So we've had a lot of meaningful conversations but I'm afraid very difficult to put a time frame, a precise time frame to this. All I can say is that we are treating it with utmost urgency.
Okay, thank you and best wishes.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Piyush Sharma from Minerva Asset Advisors. You may go ahead.
Yeah, hi, I just had a couple. Firstly, on the ATP, the headline number of course is a 5% decline. Could you share the comparable properties ATP movers?
It's in similar range. There is no substantial difference.
Okay.
I'm just looking at a slide which shows a sharp drop in blockbuster movies defined here as INR 100 crore+ GBO. I would believe that this is not unprecedented that you know that you see a 50%-60% drop. Oh, yes. Yet, in distant memory I don't recall a mid-single-digit decline in ATP. And looking at IMAX figures for India and it seems like gross box office for the quarter, just IMAX. And I know it's a small base, it is up 65%-70%. A sense is premium formats overall would.
Have done relatively better.
If that's a fair assumption, then.
Are the producers sort of pushing for?
Lower prices or something else? It's not like you've not tested with prices before, but the outcome has never been a 5% decline.
Unless I'm missing something.
Firstly, on the premium screens, definitely the trend is positive. People are upgrading their experiences. They become more receptive to the new formats or even the premium formats which have been around for a long time. We see a lot of people moving from standard mainstream seats to premium format seats. So that's a trend which is visible not just in India but across the world. This is a common thread that most exhibitors are noticing. In this particular quarter the ticket prices did not, they stayed muted, did not show a growth. In spite of the fact that we've actually increased the ticket prices, we did pass on the inflation-led increase in ticket prices to the customers.
So in fact the ticket prices were increased by about 4% unfortunately because the number of films which did more than INR 100 crore gross box office, films which were obvious blockbusters and were going to generate a lot of curiosity and initial interest and that's where we have the maximum ability to increase ticket prices and consumers are happy and willing to pay those ticket prices. Unfortunately those films were missing which is why we've seen this drop in this quarter. That said, we saw very strong momentum as soon as Kalki came out and that momentum has continued in July. We expect that momentum to continue further when Stree 2 and the other films come out in August, in the week of August 15, we feel quite comfortable with our ticket pricing.
We believe the experience is affordable for majority of people in the country and we believe this momentum of with the bigger films coming, you would see a significant improvement in the average ticket prices. As we move forward with the second quarter and the third quarter and a.
Very quick follow up on the theatrical.
Window Question.
I'm just wondering, is this academic or there's more to it?
Because.
If you look at the box office curve in India, tension is much, much steeper. My guess is 98%-99% of all lifetime GBO would happen within a three- to four-week window. So how does the incremental fifth to sixth week really for Bollywood even help? Is the notion that if you increase the theatrical window, you might eventually push that person out of the household to watch versus waiting for the OTT release? Is it, is that the reason?
That's one reason that you're making the proposition much more compelling for the customer to come to a theater and watch it on the big screen the way the director and the actors intended it to be seen. The second reason or the rationale is that when you have a blackout period, when a film finishes its run in theatrical and before it starts its run on a digital platform or on a television station, that blackout period gives an impression of a much longer window than what it actually is to the customers. And therefore in the long run it creates a perception that there is a big gap between theatrical release and the release on other platforms. So because of this blackout period between when a film finishes its run and before it starts its run on another platform, that's the other reason why the windows get extended.
There is relevance to windows being where they are.
But the blackout window remains as is whether the theatrical window is four weeks or eight weeks.
Correct.
What I mean is that blackout period would change depending on when the film finishes. So for example, if a film didn't do well at the box office, finished its run in 2 weeks, at the end of the second week and then it started post 8 weeks on a digital streaming platform. Now this gap of 6 weeks, which is the end of second week and before it starts on streaming, this 6-week would seem much longer to customers. And this point has been researched in many countries. A lot of surveys have been done.
This 6-week will sound a much longer window to most majority of customers and will create a perception of maybe a 10-week or a 12-week window which is beneficial for, you know, for the exhibition business for customers to believe if they want to watch a film legally, when it comes out fresh, then theaters is the place to go and watch that.
Do you believe that producers are?
More open to standardizing it or playing it by the ear on maybe the side of the movie that's coming out?
I don't want to get into specific details, but there is consensus that the windows should be consistent across the country. In terms of windows being longer than what they are, there are a lot of producers who do agree with this point of view that windows should be longer than what they are.
Fair enough.
Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Abhishek Banerjee from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Yeah, Hi.
Thanks.
A few quick questions for me. Firstly, what would be the admissions from the classic releases that you did this quarter? 3.4 million total admissions.
Sorry, we didn't get it. Classical.
The older movies that you kind.
Of release the re.
INR 12 lakhs. INR 12, INR 12.5 lakh.
Okay. So that number would be about 1.5 million.
Right.
In terms of the pipeline that we now seeing for Q2 and Q3. Right. Especially for Q3, do we see that it could probably become as big as Q2 of last year?
Q3 has some really big titles. Pushpa 2, for example, is scheduled in December. Then December has some really big titles like Sitaare Zameen Par from Aamir Khan. So it's very difficult to predict, you.
No, whether it will be bigger than.
Q2 of last year or not?
But yes, it's going to be.
Potentially be the biggest quarter of this fiscal year.
Got it.
In terms of this, the food court, you're talking about people coming to your cinemas be able to shop the food court or is it going to be, you know, normal walking customers can come in and shop from there without purchasing a movie ticket. How will that work? Have you kind of figured that out?
Our food court will be operated by the joint venture company with Devyani. It's going to be outside the cinema premises just like any other food court.
In a shopping mall.
Anybody can enter and exit the food court at his or her will. There is no requirement that, you know, a customer has to buy tickets or anything. It's a pre-ticketed F&B revenue that we, you know, as a strategy are targeting in this JV. So yeah, that's the sort of business model the food court will be operating in. And there shall be no overlap with this, you know, at all.
Got it. And with regards to the deleveraging plan by monetizing non-core assets. Has there been any move on that? The monetization of some office property.
Is ATP up about last quarter.
In order to deleverage the balance sheet.
Is there any?
Yeah, that's on. That's on track. We've already received the first level of this and we are in negotiations with various parties. We do anticipate this to take another 3-4 months and we shall update you as soon as there is confirmed option.
Got it. So you know, on a very broad basis what kind of data.
In terms of quantum.
About 300-350 is what we.
Believe it shall be the capital values of the two effects.
Okay. And these are not all the assets that you plan to monetize.
And is.
Is this the entire monetization that you have?
No, no, there is more but we are beginning with these two because the other ones are too small. And then you know, we shall take it at the right appropriate time because since they do not represent the code.
Line of our business.
Makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much for your time and rest of the.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Harit Kapoor from Investec. You may go ahead.
Hi, good evening. I just have two questions. One is on the occupancy level. Now I think one of the Industrial Research Agency also has mentioned that this calendar's box office should be similar to last year in spite of what slightly we need to start to the year. Just wanted to get your sense that in spite of say Q1 being a bit weaker because of the external factors as well as Q2 having a large base, do you still believe that this year should at least kind of make up to what last year was in terms of your footfall or occupancy levels rather. That's my first question.
I'll take it off. Kamal, you can add. I think you know, Q1 got impacted because you know, the film picture earlier.
Scheduled to be released in Q1 got shifted.
So as far as the full year picture goes, what we had earlier estimated, we feel that, you know, if the films which are scheduled to be released in the remaining part of the year, if they perform as per our original estimates, then you know, we should be doing similar admissions as we did in last financial year.
Got it. Got it correct. And the second element was in the synergy part. So would it be fair now to assume that the bulk of the work that you have done for the two entities to come together and the numbers?
You had called out are largely now.
Being built in the current P&L that we're looking at.
Yeah, yeah. I think bulk of it from a cost perspective is reflected in the P&L. I think the revenue related synergies would also be a function of the recovery on footfalls. So as the footfalls recover and occupancies come back to normal levels, we will see slightly better impact on the P&L as compared to what we are currently seeing.
Got it. Those are my two questions. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mr. Tuja R from Kamarkar Wealth Management Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Yeah, good afternoon, sir, and thank you for the opportunity.
I just wanted to understand in terms of revenue like last, like in terms of the prior Q2 FY24, I think Jawan and Gadar were the two big movies back then. So in terms of data, do you see the Q2 revenue to be, I know, beating the earlier, you know, Q2 FY24 revenues.
We don't want to make any forward-looking statements but sufficient to say that Q2 last year was an exception. We should be revisiting those numbers at some point this year. But whether it'll be Q2 or Q3 or Q4, I think we'll have to wait for it to pan out. But very difficult to give any specific forward-looking statements.
Fair enough Sir.
Suppose 2020-like company is struggling for profitability though the gap is reducing in terms of the company to get profitable. Just wanted to know our internal target. When are we targeting to get profitable and what are our initiatives in brief in order to move towards that?
As Kamal said, it's not possible for us to comment on forward-looking numbers in terms of performance profitability. But we are taking all steps to, you know, come back to the sort of EBITDA margins that the business was delivering in the pre-COVID period. Various measures are being implemented on revenue as well as cost side. I think you know we have mentioned some of those strategic initiatives in our quarter four full year ending FY 2024 investor presentation. I would request if you could take a look at it and you know we can address any of your questions offline separately with the investor relations team.
That was helpful.
Thank you Paul.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mr. Siddhant from Tusk Investments. You may go ahead.
Yeah.
Good evening everyone. I have two questions. My first question is out of the total 750 screens right now, 1,750 screens, how many screens are in the premium format and going forward out of the 120 screens that we plan to add this year, how many will be in the premium format? And the second question is basically I wanted to understand the pricing mechanism.
Basically.
Like, what is the say of the producer and of the distributor when it comes to setting the ticket price? How much of a say do they have?
So I'll take up the first question.
Almost 15% of our screens are premium and special format screens, which includes premium large formats including IMAX, 4DX, etc. And maybe I'll request Kamal to address the second question.
Because we operate on a revenue share relationship with the producers and distributors, we always tend to follow a consultative approach. We have the benefit of data crunching. We do a lot of analytics on ticket prices. As you know, cinema is a very local business and each cinema has its own peculiar nuances which we have to factor in when we are deciding on the ticket prices. Therefore, while we, you know, take a consultative approach, but we tend to take a lead in these decisions. And producers and distributors, over last so many years, decades of relationship that we've had with multiple producers and distributors, they've come to sort of lean heavily on the decisions that we take. But broadly it's a consultative approach.
Okay, that was helpful. Regarding the first question, you said 15% of the current premium format screens. Going forward, out of the 120 screens that we plan to add, how many will be in the premium format?
You know, new screen additions that we are doing, we are adding, you know, anywhere between 15%-20% of new screens in, you know, premium or special format screens. Other than that, even in the existing, for the new mainstream cinemas that we open, we are, you know, adding a couple of rows of recliners which are priced at a premium compared to rest of the seats in the theater. So the total proposition for the consumer is towards the premiumization not only on premium screens but also on mainstream screens.
Where the seats will be.
Certain category of seats will be premium.
All right, thank you.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. This was the last question for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Gaurav Sharma for closing comments.
Thank you everyone. I would like to thank everyone for taking the time for this call. In case there are any more questions, please feel free to reach out to me or the investor relations team at PVR INOX. Thank you very much.
On behalf of Axis Capital Limited. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. You may now disconnect your lines.