(MENAFN- Live Mint)

MUMBAI: New multiplex chains are taking a page from their larger peers' playbook.

From serving lamingtons in Tamil Nadu's Coimbatore to premium coffee in Himachal Pradesh's Paonta Sahib, these new entrants are betting on top-tier gourmet offerings to lift margins in tier-II and tier-III towns, as movies alone struggle to draw crowds.

For instance, two-year-old Roongta Entertainment, which runs 12 screens across Gujarat's Surat and Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad and Muzzafarnagar, and Broadway Cinemas, which runs a nine-screen luxury theatre in Coimbatore, have in-house teams of chefs.

Dhishoom Cinemas, which started in 2019 and has eight screens across Indian cities, including Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu and Himachal Pradesh's Paonta Sahib, has introduced beverage brands such as Chaayos and Lavazza.

The goal is to indulge moviegoers in every possible way. But ironically, that very indulgence-elaborate menus and high prices-has driven audiences away in India's urban centres, especially since the post-pandemic rise of streaming platforms.

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Customers of Roongta Cinemas spend as much as 50-55% of the average ticket price of ₹220 on food and beverages (F&B). At Broadway Cinemas, too, customers spend over 50% of the average ticket price of ₹200-270 (excluding taxes) on F&B. At Dhishoom, where the average ticket costs ₹100-150, F&B spending per head ranges between ₹100 and ₹120, according to a former employee.

“The idea is to give cinemagoers an affordable experience where they can watch movies not once but at least two to three times in a month," said the employee on condition of anonymity.

Costly bet

“We use every tool in our repertoire to get people excited about a movie. By making cinema affordable and indulgent with great food, we create experiences that people remember-and return for," Tejal Satish, Broadway Cinemas's chief operating officer, told Mint.

Broadway's premium property offers recliner seats, a clean ambience, and IMAX projection, for ₹360 plus taxes. It also features six screens, with tickets priced at ₹150 (excluding taxes) and regular movie projection quality.

“When someone takes three to four hours out of their day to visit a theatre, they're seeking an experience that makes them feel indulged and cared for," he added.

Apart from serving Korean cheese buns and freshly baked breads, Broadway Cinemas also creates at least one special dish that complements a blockbuster release.

For example, it created four different-coloured lamingtons, an Australian dessert, depicting the powers of four superheroes in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and served shahi tukda during Diwali-some of its ways of“pampering" guests.

At Broadway, a puff or a samosa costs ₹120, with cheese buns priced at up to ₹220, resulting in an average food price of ₹180.

In regular, single-screen theatres in small towns, prices for food items can vary, starting at as little as ₹30-80 for a plate of samosas. Similarly, ticket prices, too, can go up to ₹150-180 per person, according to two movie exhibitors.

Movie ticket prices follow a dynamic pricing strategy, with most theatre owners and exhibitors adjusting rates based on expected footfall-lower during weekdays and higher on weekends. Prices also vary across states due to differing regulations and taxation policies.

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Roongta Cinemas has opened a café lounge, serving coffee and bakery goods, as well as a live kitchen offering Mexican rice, pad thai noodles, pizzas, and pastas, alongside popcorn and colas, at three locations.“People can also come into our multiplexes even if they are not going to watch any particular movie," said Sanjay Barjatya, its chief executive.

The multiplex chain, helmed by Anil Roongta, who also runs an over two-decade-old real estate firm of the same name, has expanded to Hyderabad and plans on entering the southern movie market, said Barjatya.

The chain has refurbished old properties in malls, as well as single-screen cinemas, into luxury cinema halls and is also building theatres from scratch, investing ₹1.5-2 crore per screen.

“In cities such as Coimbatore and Tiruppur, we've seen purchasing power rise quite a bit over the last few years. These are entrepreneurial, globally exposed cities. People travel, they know what quality feels like, and they appreciate good entertainment even at a premium price," said Broadway's Satish.

Slow line-up, fast food

The strategic shift comes as the country's movie ecosystem, particularly the Hindi film industry, is experiencing a lean patch, with the majority of movies underperforming at the box office. The number of movies finding distributors and screen space has also declined.

In 2024, approximately 91 Hindi movies were released theatrically, as against 98 in 2023, according to industry estimates.

Once dominant, Hindi films' box office share also reduced by 4 percentage points, to 40%, according to a January report by media consulting firm Ormax Media. Collections dropped to ₹4,679 crore in 2024 from ₹5,380 crore in 2023, with Pushpa 2: The Rule's Hindi version beating Bollywood films, collecting ₹889 crore, according to the report.

In the absence of a steady lineup of good titles, cinemas are using food to generate more revenue and drive up footfalls-a trend pioneered by Chennai-based Sathyam Cinemas (SPI Cinemas), now owned by PVR INOX Ltd, said Senthil Kumar V., co-founder, theatre technology firm Qube Cinema Inc.

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“(However,) there is no substitute for movies bringing people into theatres. The business a good box-office ticket seller can generate for a cinema hall no other object could do that," he told Mint.

“The audience visits cinema halls to watch a movie and not essentially to eat. But when the content is not so great, people should still want to visit theatres. If done right, food can create stickiness and also help in creating brand recall," he added.

PVR INOX, the country's largest multiplex chain, also relies on F&B for generating higher margins. Known for its high-priced popcorn, snacks, and gourmet food offerings in its luxury screens, it recently“piloted" a dine-in cinema in Bengaluru and plans on opening the same in select outlets.

“It is for a certain demographic [one who can foot the bill] who wants to combine the two experiences of F&B and watching a movie on the big screen," said Ajay Bijli, its managing director, during the second quarter earnings call when asked about the Bengaluru-based outlet's performance.

Besides, it signed a joint venture with quick-service restaurant operator Deyvani International in May 2024 to operate food courts in malls and other shopping centres.

Its food and beverage (F&B) sales rose 12.4% year-on-year in the September quarter, contributing nearly 32% of its revenue from operations. However, the average spend per head on food fell slightly to ₹134, although it was still up 3.6% on-year for the six months ended September 2025.

High ticket prices, however, continue to deter viewers from coming to theatres, according to PVR Inox data. Between 2019-20 and 2024-25, the average ticket price climbed nearly 27% to ₹259, while occupancy dropped to 23%-well below the pre-pandemic level of 34.9% in 2019-20. Cutting prices has helped reverse some of the decline. In the first half of 2025-26, the average ticket price at PVR-Inox fell to ₹247, resulting in an occupancy rate of 25.4%.

The multiplex operator also introduced Blockbuster Tuesdays in April, offering regular tickets for ₹99 and premium ones for ₹149, compared to the usual prices of well over ₹200.“We get close to about 15-17% of the entire quarter's footfall coming in from Tuesdays alone," said Gautam Dutta, PVR Inox's chief executive (revenue and operations), in the company's October earnings call.

“High prices can significantly deter theatre attendance," said Rajesh Sethi, partner, who leads media, entertainment and sports at consulting firm PwC India.“There are psychological price thresholds beyond which cinema stops feeling like casual entertainment and becomes a special occasion viewing, requiring justification."

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