PVR-Inox stock drops over 3% as Kriti Sanon-Prabhas starrer Adipurush gets mixed review; box office collection details

Adipurush, a Kriti Sanon-Prabhas starrer, has hit theatres on Friday and the movie which is based on the epic Ramayana, is witnessing massive love across the country. On the release day, multiplexes giant, PVR-INOX witnessed bearish performance as the stock tumbled more than 3% on BSE. Adipurush movie is expected to be a game-changer for PVR - INOX in the first quarter of FY24.

On BSE, PVR-Inox share price closed at ₹1450.45 apiece, down by ₹49.60 or 3.31%. The stock ranged from an intraday high of ₹1517.75 to the day's low of ₹1444.50 apiece.

On the previous day, the stock was at ₹1500.05 apiece.

Adipurush which is written and directed by Om Raut, is expected to be among the biggest hits of 2023. The movie is produced by T-Series and is starring biggies like Prabhas playing the role of Lord Rama, Kriti Sanon as Sita, and Devdatta Nage as Bajrang. Saif Ali Khan is playing the role of Raavan. While other names are Trupti Toradmal, Amitabh Bachchan, and Sunny Singh playing the character of Lakshamana.

Although, this most-awaited movie has seen mixed reviews from netizens especially on its visual effects on the release day.

This could be one of the reasons why PVR-Inox shares witnessed a selloff as traders are cautious over Adipurush's box office collection.

According to the Sacnilk Entertainment, which records All India Box Office Collection data, revealed that on the first day, Adipurush witnessed a total advance booking of more than 20 crore and the total ticket booked was to the tune of 500k to 1 million on a gross basis. Also, it has predicted to score around ₹12-13 crore in advance sales in Hindi for the opening day. It expects overall Adipurush to bag ₹90 crore on the first day.

Coming to PVR-Inox, Jinesh Joshi - Research Analyst, Prabhudas Lilladher revealed that the advance booking trends of Adipurush are encouraging. He added, “We believe performance of this film will be critical for PVR-Inox’s fortunes in 1QFY24E. We believe 1QFY24E can be better than 4QFY23 for PVR."

The brokerage has given a 'buy' rating for the stock at the current market price of ₹1,457, with a target price of ₹1,879.

He added, "And if Adipurush is able to net upwards of Rs500 crore, we believe PVR-Inox will report a better performance than 4QFY23 (managed pre-IND AS EBITDA breakeven)."

If Adipurush is able to earn ₹500 crore, the total net box office collection for the first quarter could go up to ₹1,130 crore for PVR-Inox. This will be compared to the collection of ₹1,150 crore in Q4FY23, as per Prabhudas Lilladher's analyst.

Even if Adipurush clocks Rs500 crore, the NBOC of top-grossers would be lower than the previous quarter. However, Joshi said, "We believe 1QFY24E can be better than 4QFY23."

Adipurush has been released on 6,200 screens across India. In the hindi version, the movie is being played on 4,000 screens.