As theatres are all set to reopen from October 15, BookMyShow introduces new safety feature

With cinemas starting from October 15, platforms like BookMyShow are helping theatres bring back audiences.

While the government has issued a standard operating procedures (SOPs) for theatres, BookMyShow is also making sure that cinephiles have a safe movie experience.

The platform has rolled out 'My Safety First' feature, which is a safety shield tag. The safety shield feature will highlight the best practices being followed by all cinemas across India.

“It will facilitate a safer and  secure movie-watching experience for users, right from the time of booking tickets to return to their favourite movies," said Ashish Saksena, COO - Cinemas, BookMyShow.

The safety shield tag has been created using BookMyShow’s consumer and data analytics in collaboration with cinema partners all over India.

The My Safety First tag will list the various safety indicators available across every cinema listed on the platform. The indicators include in-cinema seat distancing, thermal screening, contactless security check, availability of hand sanitisers, daily temperature check for staff members, availability of packaged food & beverage (F&B), limited occupancy in restrooms, compulsory masks, social distancing in cinema premises, sanitisation before every show, among others.

The ticketing portal has also worked with cinema partners for sale of food and beverages in cinema halls. “A lot of cinemas have agreed to offer us a dedicated queue for express pick up of F&B,” Saxena told Moneycontrol.

For BookMyShow, around 60 percent of movie ticket buyers ended up buying F&B in pre-COVID times.

Saxena said that from developing software to ensure distancing while booking seats in theatres to working with exhibitors, the whole exercise took them 65 to 90 days.

“We knew that when cinemas would open it would be short notice. So, we made sure we were ready whenever government came up with SOPs. For example, seat distancing. There are two to three models available across the globe. So, we worked on all so that we were ready whenever the SOPs for cinemas were issued,” he added.

BookMyShow in the last few months have also got on board many smaller theatre chains and have also offered them solutions like BMS Box, which will offer contactless solution for movie ticket booking in these cinema chains.

While things have been tough for BookMyShow, with cinemas shut for around six months, business was strong before the coronavirus impact.

For example, this year BookMyShow sold 2.1 million tickets on a single day on January 12, the highest ever on the platform. It sold over 1 million tickets each day for seven consecutive days ending January 16.

BookMyShow, which is present in over 650 towns and cities across the country with over 6,000 screens, has an annual run-rate of tickets sold of over 200 million, which has doubled since 2016.

However, for BookMyShow’s business to get back to pre-COVID levels will take time, Saxena said.

“The biggest challenge is movie releases. Lot of movies will be re-runs. New movies will start releasing early next month. Things should start normalising by end of November or early December. The moment Mumbai opens, movie releases will start. We are hoping to get back to pre-COVID levels in summers next year when many big and small films are lined up for release,” he added.