 "Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Executive Director – PVR INOX Limited")
PVR Inox, India’s largest film exhibitor, will have 2,000 screens by the year 2026 with more focus on expansion in the southern market’s Tier II and III cities.
As of Q3FY25, the company’s overall screen portfolio includes 1,747 screens in 356 cinemas across 111 cities in India and Sri Lanka.
It costs the cinema major Rs 400 crore in capital expenditure to open 100-120 screens.
These expansion plans come a year after PVR Cinemas completed its merger with the then-second-largest film exhibitor, INOX Leisure.
“In the southern market, regional films have done very well and there is a great line-up of southern movies as well coming up in this quarter and the next. Pushpa (Pushpa 2: The Rule) is coming out in December, and in January because of the festivities there. In Pongal, the number of releases goes up,” said Sanjeev Bijli, executive director, PVR Inox, in a virtual interview with Business Standard.
According to the recent data released by Ormax Media, the box office collection in October was led by Tamil and Telugu films.
More From This Section
 "The much-anticipated provision of the deal value threshold (DVT) under the Competition Amendment Act 2023, notified on Monday, seeks to capture mergers and acquisitions (M&As) where the deal value exceeds Rs 2,000 crore or where the target company ha")
 "Matrimony.com")
 "SBI, State Bank Of India")
 "Air India")
 "Raymond")
He added that business from the South contributes almost 40 per cent of the company’s revenues.
Right now, PVR Inox has the highest screen penetration in the southern market with 33 per cent screens. This is followed by the northern region with 26 per cent and the western region with 21 per cent.
“We are very excited and committed to the southern market. We have some very exciting new projects coming up in Hyderabad. We're adding more screens in Hyderabad, Chennai, and a couple of more in Kochi,” he added.
He noted that there are several cities untapped in the southern market due to which these locations have higher demand. Also, the region has a stable supply of films, which will help the company’s overall business.
On Friday, PVR Inox announced a collaboration with Meta, RazorPay, and Jio Haptik to introduce Movie Jockey (MJ), an AI-powered chatbot on WhatsApp.
This tool will help moviegoers discover and book movies on WhatsApp 24x7 in multiple languages.
“WhatsApp still remains a very prominent communication feature on all our phones,” Bijli said. He added, “With apps (ticketing platforms), of course, there is a certain limitation like having the app on your phone, but everybody has WhatsApp. We just felt that this is a service that will make things more convenient for the customer. Therefore, we decided to launch this on Friday.”
PVR Inox has 70 per cent of its transactions happening through the online mode and Bijli believes that the MJ will take this number forward.
The company had earlier announced that it is expanding beyond cinema and opening its first food court, Treat Junction in Kota, Rajasthan, in December. This is a collaboration with Devyani International, the operator of brands such as KFC and Pizza Hut in India.
“Our own F&B (food and beverages) revenue is around Rs 2,000 crore a year and going up. Clearly, there is a huge demand for F&B. We felt that this could be another element to our business portfolio as another revenue stream,” Bijli said.
In terms of the company’s international portfolio, Bijli said there are no plans as of now and it will focus on the Indian market.
Moving ahead, the company will look at the cost structure to drive margins and profitability.
 "Pvr inox theatre cinema hall")
 "Gaurav Sharma")
 "PVR")
 "Singham 3")
 "PVR cinema")
