PVR Q2FY23: Film exhibition firm PVR Ltd on Monday reported a narrowing of consolidated loss after tax at Rs 71.49 crore in the second quarter ended September with people returning to cinemas as the pandemic eases. The company had posted a consolidated loss after tax of Rs 153.27 crore in the year-ago period, it said in a regulatory filing.

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Consolidated revenue from operations in the second quarter stood at Rs 686.72 crore as against Rs 120.32 crore in the corresponding period of previous year, it added.

Total expenses were higher at Rs 813.33 crore as compared to Rs 460.68 crore, PVR Ltd said. The company said it recorded 1.8 crore visits of patrons at its cinemas during the quarter under review. There was an 11 per cent growth in average ticket price at Rs 224, while spending on food and beverages grew by 31 per cent per patron at Rs 129 compared to the pre-pandemic period of second quarter FY20.

The quarter was marked by underperformance of Bollywood movies. Except 'Brahmastra Part One: Shiva', which emerged as the company's highest grossing Hindi film post pandemic, PVR said, adding, other big budget movies like 'Laal Singh Chaadha', 'Raksha Bandhan' and 'Liger' performed below expectations.

The underperformance of Hindi films could be due to several factors such as the films released were conceived before and during the pandemic and did not resonate well with the current tastes.

Also, quality of content driving performance as compared to star presence and negative social media campaign against certain Bollywood movies and stars could have played a part, it added. As for Hollywood movies, the company said the second quarter was the weakest globally in almost two decades both in terms of number of movies released and their box office collections.

For PVR, box office collections for Hollywood movies dropped by 40 per cent in comparison to Q2 FY20, it added. On the outlook, PVR Ltd Chairman cum Managing Director Ajay Bijli said, "I am confident of full recovery in the business driven by the robust content lineup for this year and the various initiatives that we are implementing to rekindle the cinema going habit amongst our loyal patrons."