World’s Most Prolific Film Industry Is on Edge as Cinemas Re-Open

In movie-mad India, millions of filmgoers are excitedly waiting for cinemas to reopen this week after a seven-month-long, pandemic-induced halt. It’s a step toward lifting the fortunes of the world’s most prolific film industry.

Avid fan Hema Chockalingam intends to hit the multiplex in the New Delhi suburb of Noida with a group of girlfriends this weekend. “I’m desperate for the movie-hall experience,” said the brand executive who wants to return to her once-a-week fix. “Watching streamed content is no match for the real thing, I’m reclaiming my old life.”

Nearly 10,000 movie theaters around the country closed in mid-March following coronavirus restrictions; on Thursday cinemas will become one of the last few categories of public building to reopen. The resumption of screening will be propitious for film buffs, big-ticket Bollywood movies awaiting theatrical release and Hollywood films such as Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, key scenes of which were filmed in Mumbai.

While cinemas have opened in dozens of countries around the world including the U.S. and the U.K., India’s restart comes just weeks ahead of Diwali, the festival of lights, a time when the biggest films line up for box office release. But with 7 million people in India infected with the coronavirus -- the second largest outbreak in the world -- doubts remain over whether audiences will fill the 50% restricted-capacity halls and if that will boost the country’s prodigious movie-making industry.

“Indian films are made for the big screen and theater audiences keep the industry humming,” said Taran Adarsh, a movie industry analyst, who fears hygiene concerns and falling discretionary spends could affect ticket sales. “After a bleak phase, this weekend and the coming weeks will determine the survival of the industry.”

Just weeks ago, multiplex owners had said in full-page newspaper ads that they’d suffered $1.2 billion in ticket losses and needed to open “on an urgent basis.”

The cascading effects of zero box-office returns and virus restrictions have already upended Bollywood and brought India’s massive film studios to a grinding stop. The shake-up could permanently hurt some studios, distributors and cinemas in a country that produces more films -- about 2,000 each year -- and sells more cinema tickets -- over 2 billion annually -- than any other.

Hanging in the balance are the livelihoods of an army of low-paid singers, stuntmen, spot boys and set designers in cities like Mumbai, as well as bustling local-language film centers such as Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The reopening brings hope not just for workers but the likes of BookMyShow, the country’s largest online-ticketing platform, which lists over 6,000 screens.