Twenty out of 400 seats were occupied during the matinee show at a cinema in south Calcutta on Friday.

But the hall owner and employees were upbeat because a start after months of shutdown was like a breath of fresh air.

A string of single-screen halls in the city reopened on Friday with a Hollywood horror flick.

Footfall did not reach double digits in many shows. Hall operators were banking on a big-ticket Hindi release, slated next weekend, to boost the footfall.

Menoka, Navina, Ashoka, Ajanta and Bijoli were some of the halls that reopened on Friday. Most of them showed The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

A handful of other halls had opened last week, following the state government’s nod for theatres to reopen with 50 per cent seating capacity, a precaution against Covid.

In the matinee show at Menoka, on Southern Avenue, barely 20 people bought tickets. Fifty per cent capacity at the theatre means 400 people.

The audience mostly comprised young people. Two friends from Garia were among the first day’s visitors at Menoka. “Watching a film at a hall felt like revisiting the past,” said one of them, a 20-year-old. “Things are very bleak. But at least the halls reopened after such a long time,” said Pranab Roy, the owner of Menoka and Ashoka in Behala.

“People are back in malls, on roads and at restaurants. We are keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for a rise in ticket sales from next week,” said Satadeep Saha, the owner of Ajanta in Behala and a film distributor.

Bell Bottom, starring Akshay Kumar, is slated to release next weekend.

It is the first big Bollywood film to be released outside OTT platforms since the Hrithik Roshan-starrer War, which was released in October 2019, said hall owners.

Saha is distributing the film across over 100 halls in Bengal.

INOX at South City Mall is set to open on Saturday. The chain had already opened some other properties, including the one at Quest, earlier this month.

“The footfall has been better than what we saw after reopening in October last year. The vaccine has increased the confidence of the people. We are hoping for a boost in footfall from next week,” said Amitava Guha Thakurta, regional director-east, INOX Leisure Limited.

The halls were shut from the end of April till the end of July this year and from March-end to the middle of October last year because of the pandemic.