India has 12.2 cr movie-goers, down by 16% compared to pre-pandemic

Media analytics firm Ormax Media has released its latest research report titled Sizing The Cinema: 2023. The report, based on research conducted in January 2023 among 15,000 Indian audiences across urban and rural India, is India’s only big-scale audience research with the objective of sizing India’s theatre-goers’ market. 

As per the report, India has 12.2 Crore (122 Million) theatre goers, i.e., those who watched at least one film in a theatre in the last 12 months (Jan-Dec 2022). The corresponding number was 14.6 Cr (146 Mn) in the Jan-Mar 2020 period, i.e., just before the onset of the pandemic. Hence, the Indian film industry has lost an estimated 2.4 Cr (24 Mn) audience to the pandemic, which they will hope to rebuild in 2023. 

The report breaks down India’s theatrical universe by gender, age, geography and language. It reveals that while Hindi is the most-watched language, with 5.8 Cr (58 Mn) audience, the Hindi theatre-going universe has shrunk by 21.5% vis-à-vis pre-pandemic. In contrast, most South languages have seen stability or growth, with Kannada growing the most at 25%, from 1.16 Cr to 1.45 Cr. An average Indian movie-goer watches films in 1.5 languages in a theatre.

Speaking about the report, Gautam Jain, Partner - Ormax Media, said: “We believe that India’s theatrical universe is sizeable enough to deserve better quality of data, than what is generally available. In a diverse and multi-lingual country like ours, absence of industry data can be a limiting factor for various stakeholders, such as investors, studios, independent producers, distributors, marketers, exhibitors, etc. This study deep-dives into the profile of the 12.2 Cr theatre-goers in India, so that more informed business decisions can be taken by these stakeholders”. 

The full report is available by subscription for film studios, production companies, investors, exhibitors, distributors, media agencies and other companies associated with the theatrical category in India.