2015: Hollywood Releases Rake In Big Moolah In India

Just as last year, 2015 saw a good run of Hollywood films at the domestic box office. In fact, this year will be remembered for Hollywood releases like Fast & Furious 7 and Jurassic World both of which grossed over Rs 100 crore at the domestic box office, pushing aside a number of Bollywood films.

The top five Hollywood films in terms of their domestic box office collections stood in excess of Rs 450 crore making 2015 a memorable year for the business of Hollywood studios in India. If one adds the other Hollywood releases in India, 2015 domestic box office collections have been the highest in the past three years, said a film trade expert.

In fact, Fast & Furious 7 grosses over Rs 155 crore at the Box Office while Chris Pratt-Irrfan starrer Jurassic World, the fourth film in the “Jurassic Park” film series, grossed Rs 100 crore.

Other Hollywood films like Avengers: Age Of Ultron (grossed over Rs 73 crore), Mission Impossible-Rogue Nation (grossed over Rs 67 crore), and Spectre, the James Bond film grossed over Rs 40 crore at the Indian box office making it a memorable year for the major Hollywood releases.

Wider Release
Another noticeable change for the Hollywood films releasing in India this year was the wider distribution. The Colin Trevorrow-directed Jurassic World released across 2,100 screens in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. “Fast and Furious 7 and now Jurassic World, the summer has shown that India is establishing itself as a big market for Hollywood content,” Universal Pictures India had said in a statement earlier this year.

Spectre is still running in over 100 screens after 22 days of its India release. Spectre got released in 1250 screens (the largest 2D Hollywood release ever) in four languages – English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu – and in 2D and IMAX formats. It is the first film to release in India in five IMAX screens, industry experts said.

For the first half of the calendar year, Avengers: Age Of Ultron remained the second highest Hollywood grosser behind Fast & Furious 7.

Growing Importance
Even 2014 was a good year for Hollywood films in India with the gross box office collections of top 10 films increased from Rs 320 crore (2013) to Rs 420 crore (2014), said the FICCI-KPMG entertainment report released in March this year.

“The consumption of Hollywood content in India is rapidly changing amongst the audience driven by the youth and emergence of new centres in tier 2 and tier 3 cities where largely dubbed content performs well,” it said.

In 2014, franchise movies such as Amazing Spider Man 2, Transformers 4: Age of Extinction, and X-Men: Days of Future Past continued to perform well at the box office and generated close to Rs 200 crore in gross box-office collections in India, the report said.

As per the report, though franchise and superhero movies had drawn a wider audience in 2014, small budget movies also performed well for example Fault in Our Stars (released in 83 screens) and Gone Girl (released across 155 screens).

“Initially aimed at the English speaking Indian audience, film studios are now realising the potential and popularity of Hollywood movies amongst the non-English speaking audience as well. Today, Hollywood movies are being dubbed in various Indian regional languages apart from Hindi,” the report had said.

What is fuelling Growth?

Conversion of Single Screens to Multiplexes in smaller towns has also played a crucial role in the wider distribution and release of Hollywood films in India, said a senior executive of a leading multiplex-chain.

Smaller theatres in tier 2 and tier 3 towns have been converting their 1,000-seater single screens into 2-3 screen multiplexes having an average seating capacity of around 250-300.

"With a small investment on renovation, the exhibitors would also have the flexibility to increase the average ticket price and charge a premium for certain shows thus making them more economically viable," said the FICCI-KPMG report on Indian entertainment and media space.