PVR Inox is the company that turned watching a movie in India into a night out at a shopping mall - it pioneered the multiplex format in 1997 and, after merging with its biggest rival in 2023, now runs the country’s largest cinema chain by a wide margin. The business rests on a simple idea: India has remarkably few screens for its population - just 7 per million people, against over 60 in China - so every new screen in a well-chosen location can draw crowds that global chains would envy, with admissions per screen running two to four times higher than large international peers. The recurring approach that explains everything else is a shift to a “capital-light” model where mall developers pay for most of the screen, while PVR Inox brings the brand, the operations and the pricing power - so it can grow without tying up its own cash.
Business segments
Two engines that feed each other - a dominant cinema-exhibition network that fills seats and sells popcorn, and a film-distribution arm that supplies the screens with Hollywood and independent titles.
1. Cinema exhibition: the main engine, built on scarce real estate and a brand that fills seats
It runs 1,798 screens across 113 cities, sells tickets and food to 150 million guests a year, and earns more per ticket and per snack than any other chain in the country.
- Food is the second ticket - a customer must buy a movie ticket before they can buy food, and spend per head on food and drink reached ₹147 in FY26, up 10% year-on-year, again the highest in the domestic industry. The company has launched its own hot-dog brand, rolled out non-vegetarian menus across 116 former INOX cinemas, and started home delivery and outdoor catering.
- Demand is engineered, not just waited for - self-driven initiatives like Cinema Lover’s Day, Blockbuster Tuesdays, and over 250 re-releases of iconic titles together pulled in more than 10 million incremental visits during quiet periods, generating over ₹168 crore at the box office. A subscription pass (₹349 for 4 tickets a month) locks in repeat visits and is applicable across all regions, with premium formats available for an upgrade fee, though not applicable on national holidays and weekday releases.
2. Film distribution: the pipeline that feeds the screens with foreign and independent films
PVR Inox Pictures is the largest independent distributor of English and foreign-language films in India, supplying more than 85% of the theatrical revenue of independent foreign films in the country.
- A library of 600 titles - the catalogue includes over 500 Hollywood films, more than 20 of which have won or been nominated for Oscars, and the business is the largest distributor of Japanese anime in India, with 23 anime films released to date.
- It picks winners, not everything - for over 20 years the business has worked only with big production houses that have a credible track record, so it avoids the risk of backing films that do not draw a crowd.
- Small but fast-growing - revenue jumped 72% from FY24 to FY25, reaching ₹3,853 million, and profit before tax more than doubled over the same period, helped by an equity infusion of ₹500 million in FY24 to scale operations.
Group structure and partners
A listed parent with a film-distribution subsidiary, an overseas cinema in Sri Lanka, a food-court joint venture, and a recently sold snacks brand - all controlled by the founders of PVR and INOX.
- The listed entity, PVR Inox Limited, was formed through the all-stock merger of PVR Limited and Inox Leisure Limited in February 2023 and is promoted by Pavan Kumar Jain (Chairman, founder of the Inox Group), Ajay Bijli (Managing Director), Sanjeev Kumar (Executive Director), and Siddharth Jain.
- Wholly-owned subsidiaries include PVR Inox Pictures Limited (film distribution) and PVR Inox Lanka Limited, which operates one cinema in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- A 49% stake in Devyani PVR Inox Private Limited, a joint venture with Devyani International Limited, was formed in July 2024 to build and operate food courts in shopping malls; the first opened in Kota, Rajasthan, with another 7-9 planned.
- The premium snacking brand ‘4700 BC’, held through subsidiary Zea Maize Private Limited, was sold to Marico Limited for ₹226.8 crore in January 2026, following a decision to focus on the core cinema business.