PVR Inox just dropped a banger. The country’s largest cineplex chain’s September quarter profit came in at about Rs 106 crore—a sharp 180 from the nearly Rs 12 crore loss it recorded in the same period last year.

What helped was that nearly 45 millionReutersIndia's PVR Inox eyes record quarterly footfalls on strong film slate, tax cuts people watched movies on PVR screens. That’s 15% more footfall than in the same quarter last year. Yet, the occupancy ratios have remained under the 25–30% range—much lower than the peak of about 35% PVR saw before the pandemic, according to at least three analysts.

So, the company is dipping its toes into newer markets.

In October, it opened its very first theatre in Gangtok, Sikkim, besides expanding to other non-metro cities such as Raipur and Jabalpur in central India. With this, PVR Inox now has over 1,760 screens across the country, including the nine it operates in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

And to reduce its skin in the game, the company is ditching its earlier model of making huge investments in building theatres.

Instead, it’s turning to the tried-and-true strategy of hospitality giants such as Marriott International, Hyatt Hospitality, and Indian Hotels Corporation, and furthering its partnership with franchisee partners. Marriott, for instance, has been able to expand to 143 countries through its “management contract” model, where it operates the hotels owned by others in exchange for a fee. Marriott, the world’s largest hotel chain, owns just 1% of its properties. 

In PVR Inox’s case, its franchisee partners would bankroll the screens while the cineplex chain serves popcorn and operates the theatre.

Apart from franchisee-owned theatres, the company also wants to give away a share of ownership to real-estate developers. Five of the 49 screens PVR Inox added in FY26, work under this co-development model.

The plan is to have a 50:50 split between PVR’s own theatres and asset-light ones, said the company management in a recent analyst callBSE.