THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If the Tamil superstar Vijay’s Master has brought a section of movie-goers back to the theatres that had remained shut for over nearly nine months owing to the pandemic crisis, now the theater owners are finding it difficult to run the show in the wake of poor turnout of movie buffs and absence of good movies.
If around 90 per cent of the movie screens in the state reopened during the second week of January, now barely 30 per cent of the total 670 screens are functional in the state.
M C Bobby, general secretary of the Film Exhibitors’ United Organisation of Kerala, said it’s very sad to note that the theatres which are functional have only around 10-15 per cent seat occupancy, despite the state government allowing 50% occupancy for a show.
It’s very difficult to go ahead with screening with this poor turnout as it would cause huge financial liabilities to the exhibitors, he said.
“Around Rs 20,000 is required to make operational a theatre per day including power bills, wages of employees and other expenses. It’s very hard to even breakeven the daily expense with this 10-15 per cent turnout of movie-goers. We don’t think the people or family are hesitant to come to theatres owing the pandemic as the Master movie had brought families to the theatre. We require steady release of stars at regular intervals and permission for the second show to take the business forward,” he said.
K Vijayakumar, president, Kerala Film Chamber, said the theatre owners are now pinning hopes on second shows.
“We have asked the chief minister to grant permission to screen second shows. The second show used to clock good revenue as the timing of the show is more convenient for working people.
So the state government should urgently grant permission to screen second shows apart from ensuring the release of movies in regular intervals. The film stars should also show some responsibility by way of urging movie buffs to turn up in theatres. Unless it would be very difficult for the sector withstand the tide of Covid,” he said.
Each screen requires two additional staff now to sanitize the theatre and check the temperature of people. These are additional expenses the theatre owners have to bear when theatres reopened.
Film Exhibitors Federation President Liberty Basheer said a good number of theatres which are functional now reopened incurring huge daily loss only to bring movie-goers back to the theatre.
There should be some urgent steps to keep the sector stay afloat otherwise the remaining screens would be closed soon, he said.