Bollywood’s nationwide box office collection in the first eight months of 2022 has crossed Rs 2,299 crore. It was Rs 917 crore and Rs 717 crore in 2021 and 2020 respectively. Although Bollywoodis recovering from the pandemic years, it is still distant from the 2019 collection of Rs 5,200 crore, says the data provided by the State Bank of India in its August Ecowrap. Bollywood is losing out to South Indian cinema. What are the reasons?
According to the data, the key reasons behind the fall include poor content, a decline in single-screen theatres, heavy entertainment tax on Hindi movies and the rise of OTT platforms.
In terms of content, the report says that the average IMDB rating for 43 Bollywood movies released since January 2021 was merely 5.9. It is way below the 7.3 rating of Hindi-dubbed movies. Before the pandemic, up to 80 movies were released per year in Hindi with the collection ranging from Rs 3,000- Rs 5,500 crore. This has come down to a total of 61 movies since January 2021. The collection was just Rs 3,200 crore.
The rise of multiplexes has contributed to the decline of single-screen cinema halls in Bollywood. This along with the entertainment tax has caused a hike in ticket rates. In South India, the concentration of single screens is far higher. That is one of the reasons why South Indian movies perform better than Hindi movies. Moreover, South India has a higher population of older cinema-goers who prefer theatres over online. Whereas in North India, millennials form the major chunk of cine lovers and they like digital options. The emergence of OTT platforms has adversely affected the cash flow of Bollywood. It is high time Bollywood start devising new strategies.
