Kolkata’s single-screens struggle to stay afloat amid film drought

For a brief moment this week, cinema screens across Kolkata went dark, fuelling speculation that the Bengali film industry had stalled. But theatre owners say the reality is less dramatic and far more practical ,a temporary pause driven by economics, not collapse.At Priya Cinema, managing director Arijit Dutta says the halt in screenings was simply a business decision shaped by falling weekday footfall. “The situation is being misrepresented. We haven’t shut down permanently , we closed for a couple of days because sales simply didn’t justify running the theatre. Our operating cost is far higher than what we are earning right now,” he says.He outlines the stark numbers behind the decision. “On Monday our total sale was about ₹9,000, Tuesday around ₹7,000, and Wednesday again roughly ₹7,000.

From that, after distributor share, we are left with barely ₹3,000–₹4,000. But the daily operating cost of the hall is ₹20,000–₹25,000. So financially it makes no sense to keep running shows in those conditions.”Weekday turnout, he adds, has dipped to unsustainable levels. “On weekdays we are seeing not more than 70–80 people across four shows. That’s not sustainable. We are trying to stay open on weekends, but during the week we may have to shut again if this continues.”

For Dutta, the issue is not that audiences have stopped coming to theatres, but that films are not drawing them in. “Ultimately, we are dependent on content.

If there are no good releases, the audience will not come. Today people value their time and money , they won’t travel to watch a film unless they feel it’s worth it.”He insists that the situation changes instantly when strong films release. “When there is strong content, the situation is completely different.

A hall like ours can easily draw 2,000 people. The cost of running the theatre remains the same , what changes is whether the films bring audiences in. Right now, the issue isn’t the theatres. It’s the lack of films that people want to watch.”A similar calculation informed the temporary closure at Navina Cinema. Owner Navin Chowkhani says the shutdown had been planned in advance and aligned with a lean release window. “We had already planned to close temporarily for renovations , this wasn’t a sudden decision.

The timing was deliberate because we could see in advance that there wouldn’t be strong content in theatres during this period, and footfall was likely to remain low,” he says, explaining that the theatre chose to complete maintenance work now rather than during a busy period.“So we scheduled the work now rather than during a busy window,” he adds. The hall is set to reopen on March 17, with expectations tied to upcoming releases including Durandar. “We’re reopening on March 17, and we’re expecting better turnout immediately after, especially with Durandar releasing on March 19. When there is a strong film, audiences do return , so the closure was part planning, part timing, not a crisis response.”Taken together, these pauses reveal less of an industry shutdown and more of a structural imbalance. Single-screen theatres are increasingly caught between rising operating costs and uneven film supply. When releases thin out, weekday attendance collapses; when strong films arrive, audiences return quickly. Exhibitors say the recent closures are therefore not signals of disappearing moviegoers, but reminders that theatres ultimately depend on a steady flow of films that make the outing worthwhile.