After Karan Johar’s remarks, the Multiplex Association of India (MAI) came out in defense of the pricing model and claimed that the average cost that a four-member family has to pay to watch a movie in multiplexes is much less than the figure that the filmmaker alluded to. MAI claims, the cost nearly amounts to Rs 1,560, which is approximately 15.6 percent shorter than the total Karan Johar proposed.
Karan Johar Says, “Average Cost For a Family of Four Can Be Rs 10,000”
For recollection purposes, it is worth mentioning that during a session of the The Hollywood Reporter India where he was a panelist, Karan Johar raised his issues about the ticket rates at the multiplexes. However, he did not in any way state the names of the chains of the multiplex, though he seemed to attack them with high prices which make the market vacated.
KJo said, “The family members said that they do not want to go to cinema halls since whenever the kids say that they would like to have popcorn or some snacks, they feel guilty saying no to the person child. Hence, they prefer heading towards a restaurant since in that case viewer is not buying a ticket but rather only the foods which are being charged. They were like, ‘Our baby will point and say wanted caramel popcorn, but we don’t have money for it and the average cost for a family of four could be as much as rupees 10000. Not only in this country is the average cost for a family of four above 10000, but also maybe those rupees 10000 themselves are not at all there in their economic planning.”
MAI Responds SHARPLY To Karan Johar’s Remarks
In response to the same, MAI, through a media statement, said, “The year 2023 has average ticket price ATP for all the cinemas of India at Rs 130 per ticket. The largest cinema chain in the country, PVRINOX, reported the ATP for fiscal year 2023-24 at Rs 258. Furthermore, average spend head SPH on F&B at PVRINOX during this phase was 132 rupees. This takes the total average expenditure for a family of four to Rs 1560 which is in variance with rupees ten thousand kinder told by mediapersons.”
Further in their statement, they clarified the misconception by stating that there is dynamic pricing for cinema and there are several other components like location, day and particular seat type that come into play.
MAI also mentioned that the exhibitors resorted to the use of some digital tools to provide discounts or promotions which, in some cases, managed to lower the cost of the cinema by as high as 50%. They asserted that the hunger of people for films is satisfied by content, not by prices and that the business forms a construct that involves producers, distributors and exhibitors. Nonetheless, inflation or no, MAI has no plans of changing their focus on offering affordable high quality entertainment to all moviegoerks.
