Mexican cinemas in India

Once upon a time in the east

A Latin American giant plans to modernise India’s fleapits

May 12th 2011 | MEXICO CITY

India’s drive-in cinemas need sprucing up

NO COUNTRY is as addicted to the silver screen as India. Every year its cinemas shift more than 3 billion tickets, well over double the quantity sold in America, the next-biggest market. But despite its size, the cheap and cheerful Indian box office doesn’t make much money: takings are less than $2 billion per year, about the same as those in France, which handles one-twentieth as many admissions.

Tickets are cheap because Indian cinemas are often fleapits. Most have only one screen. Just over 1,000 screens out of about 12,000 are in modern, pricier multiplexes. Swanky new cinemas are going up, but slowly: no more than 300 new screens a year, compared with 2,500 in China.

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