India’s largest exhibitor has returned to profit, with PVR INOX reporting record FY2026 revenue of INR ₹67.43 billion (approximately USD USD $700 million) and profit after tax of INR ₹3.87 billion (USD $40 million). In an interview with Deadline, PVR INOX Executive Director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli outlined how premium formats, stronger concession spending and a more capital-light expansion strategy are shaping the circuit’s next phase of growth. The company welcomed 150 million guests during the year and now operates 1,798 screens across 359 cinemas in 113 cities throughout India and Sri Lanka.

The recovery looks considerably less complete when measured in people rather than rupees. Indian cinemas recorded 832 million admissions in 2025, still 19% below the 1.03 billion tickets sold in 2019, even as national box office revenue reached a record USD $1.48 billion. PVR INOX’s average ticket price increased 8% to INR ₹280 (USD $2.90), while food and beverage spending per customer rose 9.5% to INR ₹147 (USD $1.50). India is therefore following an increasingly familiar global pattern: premium formats, higher prices and greater concession spending are restoring revenue faster than audiences are restoring attendance.

PVR INOX added 93 screens and closed 18 underperforming ones during the year, with 55% of its new screens developed through franchise-owned or other capital-light arrangements. Having mall developers help fund cinema construction is hardly a new exhibition invention, but it gives PVR INOX room to expand while protecting the healthier balance sheet it has spent several years rebuilding. Premiumization may be helping the company turn the financial corner, but the longer-term challenge remains universal: there are only so many ways to charge more for the moviegoers who are already showing up.