← Business Models: Industry Specific (Consumer, Services & Financial) (all topics)
Franchise & asset-light - cinema screens (FOCO)
What it is
Franchise-Owned, Company-Operated: the mall developer or property owner funds the cinema fit-out and carries the asset, while the exhibitor designs, programmes and runs it under its own brand for a share of economics
It sits alongside FOFO and conventional leased models. The approach took shape during the pandemic capital crunch and has become the primary growth route for Indian multiplex chains
Impact on industries
- Breaks the link between screen growth and capex - the chain expands its footprint and brand reach without funding the build, which transformed balance sheets after the pandemic
- Opens tier-2 and tier-3 markets where a leased screen could not clear its cost of capital, so it extends the addressable map rather than just the screen count
- Economics per screen are thinner than an owned or leased site, since the developer takes a share for carrying the asset
- Control is shared with a property-led partner, and adding screens into flat demand dilutes occupancy - capital-light growth can still hurt the key metric