Even after the backlash in the Bollywood industry, releases in the Hindi film industry had a box office collection of 2299 crore in the first eight months of 2022 compared to 717 crore and 917 crores in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
Bollywood has started recovering after the pandemic year. However, it is still way from catching up with a vast 5200 crore collection made in 2019. This is the data recorded and provided by the State bank of India on Friday in August Ecowrap.
Why are Bollywood movies failing?
There have been reports that have also noted the prime reason for such significant films behind the Bollywood industry. It is repeatedly losing to the South industry Cinemas when it comes to its box office collection.
There are a lot of reasons that we will go through which have majorly impacted the Bollywood industry. The differences are quite notable and have resulted in demeaning the Hindi film industry.
Upon tracking the evolution of Cinemas, especially during the pandemic, SBI has noted that the world has changed in a major way. Cinema-goers who had to spend two years in lockdown had a huge change in their behavior.
On an optimistic note, SBI has also observed that there is a massive shift in human behavior, which might be the reason why movies are not able to go forward. The major change in human behavior also has reminded them about human civilization to embrace the past but stay aligned with the future.
Let us find out some of the major reasons why the Hindi film industry is continuously failing.
Bad content:
According to the statistics, it is a clear indication that content quality in the Bollywood industry has declined to a significant extent. As per the report made by SBI, there were 43 Bollywood movie releases after January 2021, where the average rating made by IMDB remains just 5.9, which is very below the 7.3 rating in the 18 Hindi dubbed movies.
Even when the content quality might not correlate with the movie’s popularity, a report noted that “A simple regression exercise indicates that an extra one point IMDB rating leads to ₹17 crore more collections.”
The next possible reason for the poor collection is the lackluster collection. After 2021, Bollywood has also released very few movies. As noted by SBI, before the pandemic hit the world, 70 to 80 movies on average were released every year, and the Bollywood industry had a collection from 3000 to 5500 crores.
SBI also explained that after January 2021, there were 61 movies released in the Hindi language till 11 August 2022. The collection made on these 61 movies is around 3200 crore.
More number of multiplexes:
As per the report, the number of multiplexes was rising compared to the single-screen theaters. It also has inflated the ticket cost and discouraged moviegoers from going to the theaters. However, single screens are present in a huge number in South India.
The report also indicates that it might be contributing to the South Cinemas, and hence they might be performing better than Bollywood. According to the SBI report, the huge entertainment tax has increased ticket prices.
The demographics indicate in favor of the South Cinema, which has a huge concentration of old users, while the population in the north is higher in Millenials.
Millennials want to use OTT platforms for watching movies, while elderly people still prefer moving to the cinema hall or big screen to watch movies.
Rise of OTT Platforms:
Another common reason can be due to the presence of OTT platforms. Since most of the OTT platforms have started streaming great content, people have begun using them more after the pandemic.
Since these OTT platforms were the only entertainment platforms during the pandemic, it has now become common in every smartphone.
According to the report, when it comes to the estimates of different industries, a huge 40 to 45% of box office collection used to come from Multiplex. With the decline of single-screen theaters, Bollywood movie makers have started rethinking their distribution and content-making strategies.
People are more analytical:
Another common reason why Bollywood might not be doing great is due to the change in people’s behavior. No more viewers would love to see movies with bad content. Even when it is a fictional movie, people look forward to finding reasons to watch the movie.
As viewers have now become more analytical rather than just watching everything provided by their favorite heroes, it might be affecting the Hindi movie that is more fictional and illogical.
Apart from this, audiences do not like to see nepotism in movies. They would like to see fresh faces with fresh talents rather than dumb-headed people. Probably the Bollywood moviemakers and writers require getting fresh ideas that are practically relatable.
Directors:
Even when it largely depends from 1% to another, it is again a huge factor that plays when it comes to creating content. With legendary directors present in the South movies with amazing minds and creative heads, they can create fantastic content.
Some of the most amazing content after Baahubali at South has been producing not only engaging content for South moviegoers but also for Hindi movie goers. With great direction and movie content, people get the enthusiasm to go ahead and watch the film.
Decide Which Movie You Would Like to Watch In the Future:
These are some of the most common reasons why Bollywood probably is failing continuously over the South industry. There is no denying that the content, direction, and everything play a major factor in a movie.
Besides, since the emergence of OTT platforms has increased in such a huge manner that people have stopped moving to multiplexes and spending a considerable amount of money on such content. So, it is up to you whether you prefer to see Bollywood movies that hardly have any content or watch South movies that might be fictional yet convincing.
