PVR Inox logs over Rs 200-crore profit in second quarter

Multiplex operator PVR Inox on Thursday delivered its best quarterly results ever, with a net profit of ₹207 crore for the three months ended September 30, compared with a net loss of ₹78 crore a year earlier. Revenue nearly doubled to ₹2,020 crore from ₹1,082 crore, boosted by several blockbuster movies. The results are on a pro-forma basis, as the merger between PVR and Inox became effective on February 6 this year.

The company, which operates more than 1,700 screens, recorded earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of ₹447 crore, compared with ₹16 crore a year earlier. Ebitda margin expanded to 22% from 1.5%.

PVR Inox recorded its highest ever gross box-office collections of ₹1,336 crore in the past quarter, with 48.4 million admissions, driven primarily by Hindi blockbuster films like Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jawan and Sunny Deol’s Gadar 2. Mid-scale movies like Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani, OMG 2, and Dream Girl 2 also lifted the Hindi box-office numbers to ₹727 crore during the quarter.

Gross Hollywood box-office collection for the company was ₹293 crore, on the back of robust performances by Oppenheimer, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part I and Barbie, among others.

Rajinikanth’s Jailer set the regional box office collection at ₹316 crore. Some Marathi, Telugu and Punjabi films also performed strongly. According to media consulting firm Ormax Media, films released in September had grossed ₹1,353 crore.

“It’s the best quarter of all time for PVR Inox. We were reasonably confident that business would come back. The debate over whether people want to watch movies in theatres is over. Films across the board have been done across multiple languages,” PVR Inox chief financial officer Nitin Sood said.People are willing to watch movies on the big screen as long as the content is good, he said. “We sold close to 48.4 million tickets during the quarter, which is a very large number.”