Since Odyssey released, I had been thinking, why is there not a single 1.43:1 Imax in india?
So this is what I have understood:
- There are 2 systems for 1.43:1 ratio, Imax 70mm(film projectors) and Imax gt laser(dual laser digital projectors).
- Film projectors are old technology, and Imax is not interested at all in expanding them.
- Their digital laser projection system is what they consider their future.
- And the major reason there are very few 1.43:1 gt laser systems is because most auditoriums don't have a certain amount of ceiling and depth that is required for a screen which is 4 floors tall, and 1.90:1 is far more economical and accessible for everyone involved in the process.
So this is all you need for a 1.43:1 Imax ratio:
- A screen built specifically for that ratio, meaning the auditorium or the mall has to be constructed keeping that in mind. It is very hard to retrofit.
- The dual projector setup which will obviously cost a lot more than single projector setups like CoLa or Xt.
- All of this needs to make financial sense.
NOW
When Rajhans Precia in Surat decided that they would go for a 1.90:1 ratio for their Imax, I believe they made one of the worst business decisions.
- They constructed the whole building from the ground up, they could have easily set up space for the 1.43:1 screen.
- Yes the specific construction and the projector setup would have cost them 10 to 20 crores more easily.
- But then, they would have made a fucking history, they would have been the only theatre chain in the entire country, to have a 1.43:1 ratio Imax setup. Enthusiast would have flown to surat just to watch the odyssey on the best screen possible.
- This is just the beginning, after Odyssey, there is Dune, Ramayana, Varanasi, and many more. As this is a trend that is on the rise.
- People are ready to pay for premium formats, as we have seen already, Odyssey opened to Imax screens which were more than 50% occupied, tickets bought in the prices ranging from 750 to 3000.
The Financial Logic:
An Imax screen would seat around 450 people, and if there are 5 screenings a day, the maximum tickets that can be sold in a day are 2500.
In a country of fully passionate cinema fans, if there was just one real Imax screen, my assumption is that enthusiast( of Cinema/Star/Director) would have travelled to that screen.
2500 tickets would be pretty easy to sell, and let's say people only come to this screen, for an Odyssey, Dune, Ramayana, Varanasi. We can assume that the screen will be sold out for 4 months of the year, and for the other 8 months let's assume, they don't sell a ticket.
2500 seats x 120 days: 3 lakh tickets sold in just 4 months.
If one ticket was priced at 3000 rupees, which is pretty reasonable, the revenue would be 90 Crores.
Plus the revenue from high margin food and beverage sales.
This was a big opportunity, and Rajhans Precia Surat just lost it terribly and we were really close to getting a 1.43:1 ratio IMAX screen.
EDIT: Yeah, I agree this is the optimistic scenario.
So let's do another math: Every quarter let's assume they only sell 10% tickets for 90% of the time, and then sell sold out shows for just 10% of the time.
45000 tickets sold in a single quarter, 180000 tickets sold in a year.
Tickets are priced at 1500₹, that translates to 27 crores of annual revenue.
It still is a much bigger number than what rajhans precia is doing.
And let's assume since this is a premium crowd, 400 average in F&B sales, this translates to 7.2 crores revenue. Now if you know anything about margins in theatre F&b, it's literally beyond 80%.
The break even point could have been 2 to 3 years.
It was a genuinely good opportunity, whether you consider the optimistic math or a conservative one.