Over the past decade, India’s theatrical ecosystem has undergone a silent but powerful transformation. What was once a counter-based transaction has evolved into a fully digital purchase journey dominated by platforms like BookMyShow and the movies division of Paytm.
For audiences, this shift has meant ease, access, and immediacy. For exhibitors, it has streamlined inventory and occupancy management. For platforms, it has created scalable monetisation models built around convenience fees and digital promotions.
But for producers — the very stakeholders who finance and create the films that drive these transactions — an uncomfortable question is emerging:
Has the economic balance of digital ticketing tilted disproportionately?
Today, convenience fees are charged per ticket, over and above the base ticket price. These fees are typically shared between the platform and exhibitors. Producers, despite being the originators of the content that fuels ticket sales, do not participate in this revenue stream.
Simultaneously, producers are increasingly required to allocate substantial budgets toward digital visibility — including homepage banners, featured listings, trailer prioritisation, push notifications, and sponsored integrations. In some recent cases, significant sums have reportedly been spent purely to secure digital discoverability, independent of the film’s theatrical performance.
This evolving structure raises structural questions:
-Should producers have participation in convenience fee revenues?
-Is there adequate transparency in promotional ROI reporting?
-Are marketing costs escalating due to platform-driven monetisation models?
-Is there a growing imbalance between content ownership and distribution leverage?
Contributed by Rajesh Vrajlal Vasani (Paras Publicity Service)