CHENNAI: Multiplex chain PVR on Wednesday signed a strategic deal with South Korea’s CJ 4DPLEX to increase the number of 4DX screens in India to 21 as it is ramping up its 4DX footprint in India. The rollout will see PVR invest around $11 billion in the next two years or nearly Rs 3.5 crore per screen. “Of this amount, Rs 2.5 crore will go towards capex, while a crore is usually spent towards fitting a 4DX technology at an auditorium,” said PVR Cinemas CEO Gautam Dutta.
The 4DX features include effects of motion, wind, lighting, fog, rain, snow, rain storm and scents. It also offers a complete visual, aural, olfactory and tactile experience to cinema viewing. “We hope that this technology can take a giant step towards making a new market for itself and getting more and more consumers back into the cinemas,” said Gautam, adding that he would leverage technology by way of a higher average ticket price.“If the average ticket price for the same content playing in a standard screen is about Rs 100, at 4DX, the ticket prices could be in the range of Rs 250-300,” Dutta added. He said 4DX screens are quite profitable, with a good payback period.
PVR operates three 4DX screens at present. It opened its first 4DX screen in Noida in 2015, followed by one each in Mumbai and Bengaluru. It is in the process of retrofitting two screens in other cities by the end of this year. The fresh deal to add 16 more 4DX screens by 2019 will see such screens come to smaller locations such as Ludhiana and Chandigarh.
PVR currently operates 600 screens in 51 cities. It had a revenue of Rs 2,002 crore in 2016-17.