Media and Entertainment Industry Faces Challenges in Early 2024
The media and entertainment industry continues to experience a challenging period in the first quarter of 2024-25. After a difficult last quarter of 2023-24, the industry was further impacted by two major sporting events—IPL and T20—and the General Elections, which diverted the attention of film enthusiasts.
Box Office Highlight: Kalki 2898 AD
Despite these challenges, the film “Kalki 2898 AD” emerged as a box office success, grossing over ₹900 crore. However, its financial impact will be more evident in the second quarter, as it was released at the end of June.
Advertisement Budget Diversion
Research firm Emkay Global noted that the first quarter is likely to be disappointing for media coverage. The major summer events led to a shift in advertisement budgets and resulted in a weak movie lineup, which in turn caused subpar box office collections. Due to anticipated poor performance, some big-budget movie makers avoided summer releases, fearing potential flops.
Bollywood and Hollywood Releases
While Bollywood had a few major releases, Hollywood offerings were largely missing. Regional films, however, performed better. Subscription revenues are expected to remain steady, with other sales and services seeing a sequential increase due to movie releases and syndication deals.
Muted Footfalls
The absence of significant movie releases kept footfalls low in the first quarter. Bollywood had a slow start with highly anticipated films like “Bade Miyan Chote Miyan” and “Maidaan” failing to impress at the box office. Some small-to-medium-budget movies, such as “Munjya,” “Aavesham,” and “Aranmanai 4,” performed well but were not enough to significantly boost overall figures.
Decline in Footfalls and Ad Revenues
According to the report, footfalls are expected to decline to 30.8 million in the first quarter, down from 32.6 million in the previous quarter. Advertising revenues are projected to remain subdued at ₹100 crore, a 4.3 percent decrease from the previous quarter, reflecting the inconsistent performance of the industry.
Overall, the media and entertainment industry faces significant challenges as it navigates through the impacts of major events and shifting audience attention.(Dubai7 realmoneygame)