PK first to see Rs 100cr e-ticket biz. Current Affairs & General Knowledge January 2015.

Aamir Khan-starrer PK has become the first Bollywood film to gross Rs 100 crore from online bookings, signalling that internet economy is beginning to seriously influence India’s movie-going habits. BookMyShow, the country’s largest online entertainment ticketing platform with over 90% market share, has reported over Rs 102 crore in revenue from the sale of PK tickets, as of Wednesday . This represented 21% of PK’s domestic collections and 16% of its gross earnings, including the overseas numbers.

PK’s box office revenue topped Rs 647 crore, or $104 million, making it the most successful Bollywood film till date.BookMyShow data said PK’s online sales were 100% higher than Dhoom 3, which netted Rs 47 crore through internet sales. The other top internet sales grossing Bollywood films include Happy New Year (Rs 36 crore), Kick (Rs 31 crore), and Chennai Express (Rs 30 crore).

India’s consumer internet startups, heavily funded by the Wall Street hedge funds and Silicon Valley venture capitalists, are riding high on the surging number of internet users, estimated at over 250 million currently. Mobile internet is driving online consumerism, bringing in as much as 70% of the traffic for most companies. “Immediacy of movie ticket purchases is getting shorter and there is a higher rate of impulsive buying that is happening, as consumers now have greater access to tools like internet and mobile,“ BookMyShow CEO Ashish Hemrajani told TOI. The Mumbai-based company is funded by Accel Partners, Tiger Global and SAIF Partners, among others.

India’s box office is estimated to sell 50 million tickets monthly , with 4-6 million being sold online. PK’s online book ing stood at 6.5 million. Online ticketing accounts for 20% of Hollywood and 16% of the Chinese box office collections, pegged at $11 billion and $3.6 billion annually .

Online sales of niche Bollywood films like The Lunchbox and Madras Café were 40-70% of the gross collections.

Hemrajani said almost 50% of cinema bookings for the weekend are done either on the day of the show or just a couple of hours before the show. “This is the internetization of the Indian consumer story . It will gather pace as more people get comfortable with smartphones,“ said Rehan Yar Khan, founder and MD, Orios Venture Partners, an early-stage investor in new-age software product and consumer internet startups.

Hemrajani added, “Next year, we may talk of a movie that has crossed Rs 150 crore or Rs 200 crore in online sales.“