Indian moviegoers might stay home this August in spite of big releases, says survey

• A Local Circles survey says that the percentage of citizens going to multiplex is likely to dip by half as compared to March.
• Nearly, 51% of the survey respondents said they have no such plans to watch a movie in the cinema halls in the next 60 days.
• This report comes at the time when Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan and Ranbir Kapoor’s Brahmastra are getting ready for release.

Even though the Indian film industry is preparing itself for a long line up with big releases, the audience does not seem too keen. According to a survey by Local Circles, only one in five respondents (22%) are planning to watch a movie in the cinema hall or multiplex in the next 60 days.

This is only half of what it was in the month of March 2022. “Similarly, 14% of citizens were planning to visit a cinema hall per LocalCircles’ survey conducted in Dec 2021. This percentage rose to 41% in the March survey, and now stands at 22% in August 2022,” the report noted, adding that the footfall is likely to dip by half.

The recent survey — based on the responses from 11,707 individuals across 302 districts of India — highlighted that 51% of the respondents said they have no such plans to watch a movie in the cinema hall or multiplex in the next 60 days. Meanwhile, 19% noted that they don’t watch movies in theaters anyway.

The report showcases the customer’s sentiment around the big blockbuster movies like Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan and Ranbir Kapoor’s Brahmastra Part One: Shiva that are lined up in August and September.

The first three months had actually turned out to be pretty good for the Indian film industry with movies like RRR, KGF Chapter 2, Bhool Bhulaiya 2, Kashmir Files and others leaving a mark in the theaters.

However, the momentum looked to have slowed down with Shamshera, Prithviraj Chauhan, Ek Villain Returns and Jayeshbhai Jordaar going in and out of theaters in a span of a few weeks.

The performance of movies in the last month has also got the business world worried about the traction cinema businesses would be getting despite several big big budget releases. This was also one of the$4for earnings for June quarter.

Movie	Release
Bullet Train	August 5, 2022
Laal Singh Chaddha	August 11, 2022
Raksha Bandhan	August 11, 2022
Agent	August 12, 2022
Thiruchitrambalam	August 18, 2022
Nope	August 19, 2022
Liger	August 25, 2022
Beast	September 2, 2022
Yaar Mera Titliyaan Warga	September 2, 2022
Brahmastra Part One: Shiva	September 9, 2022
The Women King	September 16, 2022
Dhokha Round D Corner	September 23, 2022
Vikram Vedha	September 30, 2022
Ponniyin Selvan	September 30, 2022

You can check the complete list of big budget movies lined up for this year $4.

The Local Circles’ survey also asked people whether they have watched any movie in the theater in the last 60 days. To this, 29% gave a positive response. Meanwhile 49% responded with a no and the remaining 29% said that they don’t visit cinema halls. This question in the survey received 11,226 responses.

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