India¡¯s Largest Multiplex Chain PVR's Boss Ajay Bijli Explains Why Your Popcorn Is So Expensive

Watching a movie in theatre with your friends or family is something most of us love to do, right? But no matter how low or high the price of your ticket is, whether Rs 100 or Rs 500, one thing that remains a pain point for many moviegoers, is the high prices of food and beverages. That's what makes many people think twice before buying that expensive popcorn or beverage, isnt it?

For example, as per BookMyShow app, at Ambiance Mall and City Centre Mall Gurugram, the price of popcorn at PVR currently ranges around Rs 340-490 depending on flavour and size, whereas pepsi price ranges around 330-390. Whereas in PVR at Phoenix Marketcity Mall in Bengaluru, the price of popcorn ranges around Rs 180-330.

All this sounds expensive, right?

Sharing his views on this issue of high food and beverage prices in PVR, its Charman and MD spoke about the F&B (Food and Beverage) business which he said is now worth Rs 1,500 crore.

The boss of India¡¯s Largest Multiplex Chain PVR, Ajay Bijli, believes that India remains under-screened and the business has immense potential to grow. He laid emphasis on India needing an enhanced multiplex experience at every price point, as per ET report.

Ajay Bijli reportedly said that he doesn't blame the consumers for speaking against expensive food at PVR cinemas, as the transition from a single screen to multiplexes for movies is still happening and the operational and capital expenditure involved in running both has a huge difference.

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These costs include squeezing in multi screens in a limited space and the cost of installing the infrastructure needed to run them and the rental for property leased in malls.

"Expenses are a function of quality. When people feel they are happy with what they are getting, then they don't complain", he mentioned.

The PVR boss also said that there is an infrastructure around what is being sold. "Earlier, single screens used to have one projection room, one sound system, foyers were never air conditioned. When multiplexes came, capex (capital expenditure) shot up 4 to 6 times."

He said that multiplexes have six screens with six projection rooms, six sound systems along with air conditioned foyer (the entrance hall in a cinema/theatre where people meet or wait), so the capital expenditure and the operational expenditure also shot up. All these various rising costs seem to be the reason behind movie theatre companies like PVR charging high prices for food and beverages available at theatres.

People are by and large happy with the quality of the offering otherwise they wouldn't have done the kind of F&B sales they have achieved, he further added.

ET

As far as the merger with Inox is concerned, the PVR boss said that the approval should come within a few months. The merger has already got clearance from market regulator SEBI as well as national stock exchanges BSE and NSE.

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The first quarter results of PVR have reportedly shown that the footfalls have reached pre-pandemic levels.

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