Mumbai: Entertainment ticket booking portal BookMyShow has witnessed a hockey stick growth in user engagement, traffic and transactions almost nearing pre-covid levels on the platform within just the first ten days of cinemas opening up with a stellar film lineup including Rohit Shetty-helmed "Sooryavanshi," superstar Rajnikanth’s "Annaatthe," Marvel’s "Eternals" and Malayali superstar Dulquer Salmaan’s "Kurup."
Within the first ten days of films releasing pan-India, daily consumer traffic surged to reach 76 per cent of pre-covid levels on an average while user engagement has been steadily rising the charts already surpassing 66 per cent of pre-covid levels on the ticket booking portal. Consumers from Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Ahmedabad have been quickest to return back to the films contributing 48 per cent of the traffic recovery, said BookMyShow in a statement.
The boost to consumer sentiment and its recovery has been driven by BookMyShow’s campaign #CinemaIsBack – a six-month campaign to encourage audiences to relive the magic of the big screen experience all over again, with all safety measures intact. Conceptualised and executed by BookMyShow’s in-house team, the campaign aims to target entertainment-lovers across age groups, geographic restrictions notwithstanding, and social setups through various social media platforms.
"The quirky and nostalgic campaign is a visual, socially engaging and meme-based series executed on digital and social media and will be amplified across BookMyShow’s loyal customer base and potential new audiences both on the platform’s mobile app and website through mailers, push notifications along with social media platforms as also digital media," said the statement.
Additionally, as a part of the larger #CinemaIsBack campaign, BookMyShow will onboard up to 300 brand advocates to highlight the safety measures being undertaken at the cinemas and the experience of going back to theatres.
“With cinemas opening in India coupled with an exciting line up of big-budget movies that have started to hit the screens from Diwali and for the next six months, we are excited to deliver and communicate an authentic, nostalgic and irreplaceable experience through the #CinemaIsBack campaign," stated BookMyShow head of marketing Vamsi Murthy. "The success of the campaign within the first 10 days itself has been phenomenal, setting the wheels of the business in motion with a tremendous surge in traffic, user engagement, and ticket sales."
"Over the next few months, we look forward to welcoming film enthusiasts and cinephiles #BackToTheatres for a safe entertainment experience through this festive season and beyond. We are confident that the stage has been set, for a long-awaited revival of the cinema business in India with all the standard safety protocols in place," he further said.
The surge in traffic has also provided a fillip to the business with transactions for "Sooryavanshi," "Annaatthe," "Eternals," and "Kurup" skyrocketing towards a complete recovery. The much-awaited "Sooryavanshi" has been making all the right moves as it crossed 2.6 million tickets sold within the first week while "Annaatthe" (Tamil) crossed 1.3 million tickets sold on BookMyShow becoming the first film to hit the million mark on the platform after the second unlock in 2021. Dulquer Salmaan’s "Kurup" clocked a stellar 800,000 plus tickets sold within the first weekend itself.
BookMyShow contributed over 40 per cent of Sooryavanshi’s box office collections in India for the opening weekend with the film hitting a peak of 21 tickets sold per second on 6 November becoming the highest ever peak for a Hindi film on the platform. BookMyShow also clocked a stellar 52 per cent contribution for Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Eternals’ box office collections in India with the film crossing 700,000 tickets sold across languages and versions in 3D, IMAX and 4DX across cities in India on BookMyShow, it said in a statement.
