Theaters which remained shutdown due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions finally reopened on 15th October and movie lovers turned up to experience cinema on the big screen after long gap. With the Theaters Reopening Guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOP) of central govt, a few theaters reopened with 50% seating capacity but saw very few visitors.
Every year, Indian Cinema produces more than 2,000 films that feature large casts with complex dance routines and singing serving to unite a diverse nation of 135 crore people. The film industry’s success over the years has been a boon for the economy, but after the pandemic began, this has nosedived to its slowest growth on record. With the Unlock 5.0, theaters reopened with 50% seating capacity and seeing steady growth.
The multiplex giants like INOX, Cinepolis reopened its facilities across India from 15th October while PVR announced that they will start functioning from 16 Oct 2020. However, most of the Theaters in India opened with single number footfalls due to lack of big Heroes movies.
Theaters and Multiplexes in places like Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh opened with less fill rates While most of the theaters and multiplexes remain closed in states like Telangana, Andhra, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala due to of various reasons.
In order to support theaters, Film industry members are sending messages and requesting people to head to theaters. However, single theaters are seeing less footfalls when compared with Multiplexes as some of the filmmakers still focusing to release their movies on OTT platforms.
Reasons for Less Footfall:
- The Covid-19 widespread has not completely come to an end
- A section of film audience are still in dilemma about the precaution measures at Theaters. This is the main reason for people not visiting Single theaters than Multiplexes.
- One of the reasons for the less turnout of the audience is that only old releases and OTT releases are being screened now.
- There is no clarity about the movies in Theaters
- There is no any big star movie heading to Theaters as of now. May be more people will come once there are new releases of Big stars in the coming days.
