India’s theatrical market has defied global trends by outperforming pre-pandemic revenues, despite the rise of streaming services and the slowdown in Hollywood’s pipeline. In 2025, the country’s box office reached a record-breaking $1.48 billion, thanks to a string of hits including Dhurandhar and the Kantara prequel.
PVR Inox, the country’s largest cinema chain, has also come off a record-breaking financial year, with annual revenues of $700 million. This includes 52% from ticket sales and 30% from food and beverages. The company’s profit for the financial year ending March 2026 was $40 million, which has helped to whittle down the debt incurred during the merger between PVR Cinemas and Inox in 2023.
According to Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, executive director of PVR Inox, India has been less affected by inconsistent film supply than other territories. Local films have stepped in to fill the gap during Hollywood strikes, and regional films have kept the turnstiles spinning when Hindi cinema slowed down. Now, Hindi films are back in a big way, with Jio Studios’ Dhurandhar and its sequel grossing around $320 million between them, and Hollywood staging a comeback with several hits last year and so far in 2026.
‘We’re pretty happy with the way things are going, because every time a good film comes along, all the other producers try to better that, so now everyone is trying to make the next Dhurandhar,’ says Bijli. ‘In the last few years, big producers like Dharma and Excel secured funding, so investment is coming in, and that’s the strange but wonderful thing about this industry – it never seems to run out of money.’
Bijli explains that the circuit has a 35-50% share of box office for local movies, but a much higher 60-70% share of more multiplex-friendly English-language films. Hollywood titles usually account for around 10-15% of overall Indian box office, which is dominated by Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil movies. However, last year Avatar: Fire And Ash charted in the top ten, and this year titles including Project Hail Mary, Michael, and Obsession have all performed well.
However, behind the headline figures, analysts have pointed out that increased theatrical revenues are mostly due to an increase in average ticket prices, while admissions have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. In 2025, admissions stood at 832 million, a decrease of around 19% compared to 1.03 billion in 2019.
‘This speaks to the changing nature of cinema attendance, with premium formats pushing up average ticket prices and audiences becoming more selective about what they’ll leave home to see,’ says Bijli. ‘We’ve established from this year’s trends that premium formats are here to stay, because they differentiate the viewing experience from what you get at home, and there’s a big market for that in India.’
PVR Inox is working with around ten premium brands, including Luxe Insignia, Imax, 4DX, and Screen X, as well as providing luxury auditoriums and gourmet food and beverages. The company is also experimenting with alternative programming, including streaming concerts, IPL cricket matches, and live events through its ‘Live On Stage’ program.
Outside of Cannes, PVR Inox acquired several films during this year’s Cannes Marche du Film, including two from Patrick Wachsberger’s 193 – Fernando Meirelles’ Art, starring Ralph Fiennes, Colin Farrell, and Wagner Moura, and Doug Limon’s Bitcoin with Gal Gadot and Casey Affleck – along with three horror films from Neon – 4×4: The Event, It Ends, and The Young People, the latter starring Nicole Kidman.
The Cannes haul also includes five FilmNation titles: Karim Ainouz’ Last Dance with Adrian Body and Rachel Ziegler, Edward Zwick’s Asymmetry (Richard Gere), Magnus von Horn’s The Passenger (Jeremy Strong), 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank (Liam Neeson), and animation Wildwood, with voice cast including Carey Mulligan and Marshahala Ali.
‘We could see through social media comments, social listening, that there was massive demand for [Makoto Shinkai’s] Suzume, so we flew to Japan to meet with Toho,’ says Bijli. ‘Indian audiences are aware of Japanese anime, and we realized that there was a huge market for these films.’
PVR Inox is focused on increasing its screen count, currently operating 1,798 screens across 359 sites in over 110 cities. The company is achieving this through a ‘capital-light’ strategy, co-investing in new cinema builds with mall developers that house the theatres. This enables PVR Inox to reduce its capital exposure and see a faster return on investment.
