NEW DELHI: Contrary to expectations that Adipurush would give a big boost to PVR Inox shares, the negative reviews from filmgoers who watched the big-budgeted movie on the first day of its release dragged down the stock by more than 3%.
PVR Inox shares closed 3.40% lower on Friday at Rs 1,448 apiece on the NSE. “The negative reviews may have had a repercussion on PVR shares which witnessed a good rally on Thursday,” Jinesh Joshi - Research Analyst, Prabhudas Lilladher told the TNIE.
He added that the movie’s weekend box office collection is expected to be high due to advance bookings but the litmus test for Adipurush will be from Monday when word of mouth will have its real impact.
According to trade pundits, around 6 lakh tickets for the movie, based on Hindu epic Ramayana, were sold till Sunday for its Hindi and Telugu versions in PVR Inox outlets. The Prabhas starrer movie is said to be made with a budget of `500 crore.
Movie critic Taran Adarsh in a tweet on Friday called the movie disappointing and gave a rating of 1.5 stars out of five. He added director Om Raut had a dream cast and a massive budget but he created a ‘huge mess’. Many other leading critics also slammed the movie for poor VFX, weak dialogues and underwhelming direction.
In a report titled ‘Can Lord RAMA rescue PVR-INOX in 1QFY24E’, Prabhudas Lilladher said the movie’s performance will be critical for PVR-Inox’s fortunes in Q1FY24E. “So far, 4 movies have crossed the net box-office collection barrier of Rs 100 crore in 1QFY24 and if Adipurush is able to net upwards of Rs 500 crore, we believe PVR-Inox will report a better performance than 4QFY23,” said the brokerage, which has a buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,879. PVR-Inox had reported a net loss of Rs 333 crore for the fourth quarter that ended March 31, 2023.