Multiplex preferred over single screen theatre despite cheaper rate: Study
The scenario is worse for cinema halls and theatres with most of them showing occupancy rate of 20-30% even on weekends
 "Multiplex preferred over single screen theatre despite cheaper rate: Study")
The scenario is worse for cinema halls and theatres with most of them showing occupancy rate of 20 per cent to 30 per cent even on weekends.
The survey ' Bengal Bioscope,' a first of its kind on the bengali film industry was done jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and IMRB across districts of West bengal to understand the perception of Bengali films among its target audience. While footfalls in districts at 63 percent is considerably higher than the capital Kolkata, the dwindling numbers in single scren theatres is uniform across the board. However, the survey shows that the case is not similar for other language movies as 75 percent of them have visited a single screen to watch a movie in other language.
Around 30% of those who are surveyed do not consider watching Bengali films in a hall in near future and an additional 10% have stopped visiting halls to watch Bengali cinema in the last one year. A senior exhibitor said: "Even when we look back at 2004-2005, all Bengali films were screened for a minimum of 6-8 weeks. Commercial success was driven primarily because of footfall with halls registering almost 100% occupancy on weekends". The study suggests that it would be profitable for the single screen owners to transform them into multiplexes as the younger generation viwers prefer multiplexes over single screen theatres.
The report also suggests the use of e-commerce to increase the reach and shelf-lif of the movies. In India, according to IAMAI report, in 2013, 149 million individuals actively use the internet and these are the potential audience capable of streaming and downloading films.