What lies behind the decline in movie screen count in south India?
Southern India’s formidable movie-going culture is facing a quiet reset. Even as the rest of the country added more cinema screens in 2025, the southern states saw a marginal decline, with single-screen theatres bearing the brunt amid tepid box office trends and rising real estate pressures.
A recent Ficci-EY report shows screen count in the southern region fell 1% year-on-year, compared with 3% growth across India. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka together lost over 100 screens, as ageing standalone theatres struggled with volatile footfalls, rising costs and competition from OTT platforms.
While trade experts argue that part of the decline reflects a structural shift—single screens being redeveloped into multiplexes—the data also underscores softer audience turnout in key markets such as Telugu and Tamil cinema, where higher ticket prices have propped up revenues even as footfalls slide.
Footfall pressure
According to media consulting firm Ormax, footfalls in Telugu cinema stood at 18.1 crore in 2025, declining for the second consecutive year. Sustained box office collections were largely driven by higher average ticket prices, especially for tentpole films.
Tamil cinema fared no better. The Tamil box office remained stagnant—1% lower than in 2024 and 8% lower than in 2023. Footfalls dropped sharply by more than 15%, with 2025 recording the lowest footfalls for the Tamil film industry since 2016, excluding the two pandemic-affected years.
That said, industry observers point out that not all single-screen closures represent a permanent loss. A significant portion are being redeveloped into multiplexes.
Structural recalibration
Unlike the Hindi belt, single-screen theatres still hold a far more dominant presence in the South. The shutdowns in these regions are also more recent, highlighting declining returns from both big-star vehicles and smaller films.
“The marginal decline in southern states is largely due to market maturity and ongoing rationalisation. The region has historically had a high screen density, so what we are seeing now is the closure of underperforming single screens, redevelopment of older properties, and temporary shutdowns for upgrades,” said Bhuvanesh Mendiratta, managing director, Miraj Entertainment Ltd.
“In a few cases, standalone theatres are also being repurposed due to real estate pressures. At the same time, tier-two and tier-three markets are seeing an increase in screen count, as expansion shifts towards underpenetrated regions. Overall, it is less about a drop in demand and more about structural recalibration across markets,” Mendiratta added.
Lumpy releases
Rahul Puri, managing director of Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas, agreed that some theatres are being redeveloped but said south India has begun to mirror the Hindi belt in terms of a few lumpy releases doing well, followed by prolonged periods of lull.
For years, trade experts expected the South to buck the trend of inconsistency. That advantage now appears to be fading.
“Some dip in screen count may also be due to delays in multiplex conversion but several single screens have also disappeared completely and transitioned into godowns and other spaces,” independent trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai said.
Multiplex inevitability
Industry experts unanimously believe that conversion to multiplex formats is the only viable path forward for single-screen properties that can no longer fill 800–1,000 seat auditoriums at a time when audiences have multiple entertainment options. Multiplexes allow exhibitors to screen multiple films across more shows and formats.
“Many older single screen theatres, particularly in Southern states, are finding it financially untenable to continue operations. Rising real estate values, higher operating expenses, falling footfalls, and OTT competition have made standalone cinema exhibition difficult, and this trend is exacerbated by distributors demanding very high shares for tentpole movies, leaving exhibitors with insufficient margins, especially for smaller, independently owned properties,” said V. Senthil Kumar, co-founder, Qube Cinema, a digital cinema technology provider.
That said, a significant portion of these single-screen venues are being redeveloped into multiplexes and reappear as new multiplex screens. Kumar added that the relatively smaller growth in screens in the South must be viewed in the context of the region’s much larger base and higher screen density.
