Will Theatres Turn Wedding Venues?

Many exhibitors complained that theater management had become a burden in the absence of the revenue due to corona crisis. From time to time, they would hold meetings in the film chamber to discuss their losses. There is also a report that the sector has completely collapsed due to government regulations on parking fee exploitation and canteen robbery.

In AP and Telangana, theater owners are constantly fighting over this. Theaters have now been closed for six months with the arrival of the Corona pandemic. There are currently no indications of an opening though. Although the Central and State Governments have announced that Theaters can be opened with the Unlock 4.0 guidelines, there is no panic among the people. The vaccine may not come in near future. So exhibitors have already analyzed whether it is difficult to open Theaters now.

Due to this situation, malls and multiplex theatres have a chance to survive, but not single screens. Single screens face maintenance difficulties in normal days itself. All of them may soon get closed irrespective of the unlock relaxations. They say there is no point in opening these theatres and replacing half the seats and following the rules.

Analysts feel most of them would soon turn into wedding halls or even go downs. According to the latest unlock rules, theater owners are in a dilemma as sanitizers and thermal scanning will increase their costs with no returns.

Of the 1700 theatres available earlier, it came down to 1200 theatres in AP and Telangana and even those may not exist in the future. Even if multiplex Theaters survive to some extent with other sources of revenue, the survival of single screens is a very difficult possibility.

That is what the filmmakers are evaluating. Those in the field do not deny it. D Suresh Babu, who has a long experience in the field of exhibitions, had earlier analyzed whether he should consider opening multiplexes. He argues that even 30-50% occupancy will not help the theatres. AMC Theaters have closed in places like America. There has been a recent campaign that big companies like Amazon are buying them.