What can ₹1 get you? 30 minutes of trailers at PVR Inox

• PVR Inox’s recipe for solving the problem of dwindling footfalls is to give moviegoers a taste of the big screen experience of upcoming movies.
  
• The multiplex giant is offering a curated 30-minute trailer screening show for just ₹1, ahead of the crucial summer season with movies lined up in May and June.
  
• During the first weekend, PVR Inox sold 35,000 tickets of its trailer screening show across the country.
  

Multiplex giant PVR Inox is trying to lure people back to the cinemas with a unique offer – watch 10 upcoming trailers in a 30-minute screening show for just ₹1. In exchange, people get to beat the heat in comfortable, air-conditioned seats and perhaps even enjoy some of those trailers.

This is the multiplex chain’s bid to woo back the moviegoers who have shunned the big screens since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out and “re-ignite their love for watching entertainment on the big screen”. The chain will also be hoping these shows translate into a boost in advance bookings for movies releasing in the crucial summer season.

Salman Khan-starrer Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Vikram’s Ponniyin Selvan: Part-2, and Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan are among the movies lined up for release in May and June.

The trailers will be curated by PVR Inox and will include upcoming Bollywood, Hollywood and other regional movies as well, customised based on the region.

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because PVR Inox has borrowed a leaf out of the booklet of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies like Nestle India, ITC, Kellogg’s and others, which have long used samples as a way to attract new customers by giving them a taste of their new products.

For instance, FMCG companies have targeted kids by partnering with schools to give out free samples of Kellogg’s Chocos, Horlicks, Boost, Bournvita or Sunfeast’s Timepass biscuits or atta noodles. These companies also often give out free samples to visitors in shopping malls.

The trailer screening show is PVR Inox’s bid to bring sampling to the big screens, especially after reporting a 15% decline in footfalls in the first nine months of FY23. With a total of 1,680 screens, it is India’s largest multiplex chain with presence in 115 cities in India and Sri Lanka.

Dwindling footfalls

Dwindling footfalls have worried both single-screen and multiplex chains alike post the Covid-19 pandemic. According to media consulting firm Ormax, Hindi cinema footfalls fell from 341 million in 2019 to a meagre 189 million in 2022. Only two Bollywood movies have managed to break the ₹100 crore collection mark in the March quarter.

“In our view, the innovation is interesting and would help address low footfalls, particularly witnessed in case of Hindi movies,” Nuvama Institutional Equities said in a note, adding that it could also help boost advance bookings for upcoming movies.

For starters, the trailer screening show is available in multiple cities across the country, and PVR Inox says there will be two shows per day. According to Nuvama, 35,000 tickets were sold across the country over the last weekend.

Our initial checks in Mumbai suggest that a large number of seats are vacant today (Friday). It will be interesting to see if PVR Inox’s experiment gathers momentum, especially when people can freely watch trailers on their smartphones or TVs from the comfort of their home.

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