Mumbai: Ormax Media’s new annual report, “Sizing The Cinema: 2024,” highlights the expansion of the Indian theatrical market, based on research involving 8,500 Indian audiences from urban and rural areas in January 2024, showing a notable increase in theatre attendance compared to the previous year.
According to the report, India now has 157.4 Million or 15.7 Crore theatre-goers i.e., those who watched at least one film in a theatre in 2023. This not only marks a 29% increase compared to the previous year (12.2 crore) but also surpasses the pre-pandemic level (14.6 crore) by 8%.
These 15.7 Crore audience contributed to the 94.3 Crore footfalls at the domestic box office in 2023, which comes to an average of 6.0 films watched by a typical theatre-goer in India, across all languages put together.
The report breaks down the theatrical audience by demographics (age, gender), geography, and language. Hindi cinema had the largest growth, with its audience reaching 9.2 crore, a 58% increase from 2022. Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada films saw slight decreases, while Malayalam cinema rose by 19% to 1.2 crore in 2023.
Sanket Kulkarni, Head: Business Development (Theatrical) at Ormax Media, emphasized the importance of such data for industry decision-making. “Market sizing and audience data are as crucial as box office numbers when it comes to strategic decision-making,” Kulkarni said. “With a history of more than 100 years and 12,000 Crore plus box office, the Indian film industry needs and deserves a study of this nature and stature. While it is well understood that the theatrical business has made a sound recovery post the pandemic, this report quantifies the recovery, at the level of markets, languages and demographics, leading to a deeper understanding of India’s theatre-going population.”
The full report is available by subscription for film studios, production companies, investors, exhibitors, distributors, media agencies and other companies associated with the theatrical category in India.
