That the multiplex chains in India are a cartel is now an open secret. What is funny is that in their standoff with producers and distributors, it was claimed that they were fighting a cartel. With two cartels in operation, in which the lines between the two are sometimes blurry, little wonder that a movie ticket at a local multiplex can buy you over three tickets at an older single screen theatre; or feed a family for a week, depending on how you choose to see it.
We are a people easily led. A ridiculous film like Three Idiots can get families trooping off to the theatres (and walking out believing they experienced good cinema), drawn by a reasonably well orchestrated media strategy. Little wonder then that we play into the hands of cartels such as these and pay good money for little more than well dressed lobbies, fawning staff, and jarring sound. Nothing justifies paying dollar prices for movies in Indian cities, and it is good time we woke up to it.
Though the real reason for the continued run of multiplexes is probably that they help maintain the upper middle classes in their little bubbles of plenty, without being nudged around by the riff-raff.
Which again goes to prove the point.
