PVR INOX to shut down 50 screens in the next six months

India’s largest multiplex chain PVR INOX plans to shut down 50 cinema screens over the next six months as the properties are loss-making or housed in malls, which have reached the end of their life cycle with little hope of any revival, the company said on Monday. “These properties are loss making, or housed in malls which have reached the end of their life cycle with little hope of any revival. The company has taken an accelerated charge of the depreciation in its books and written off the Written-Down Value of assets,” said the firm in investor update presentation. Erstwhile rivals PVR and INOX Leisure completed their merger in February 2023, to become the country’s largest cinema multiplex chain with 1,689 of India’s estimated 9,000 screens. The newly-merged PVR INOX’s screens are spread across 361 cinemas in 115 cities in India and Sri Lanka. In the previous fiscal year, PVR and INOX launched 168 new screens in 30 cinemas, and the firm plans to open 150-175 more screens in FY24, according to the post-Q4 results press release. “Most of these screens are in different stages of fit-out. The company as a strategy has also realigned all upcoming handovers of new sites for fitouts to next calendar year till the time there is strong recovery in box office.”