Indians can’t get enough of Hollywood

MUMBAI: Bollywood is getting jostled by Hollywood. The lack of blockbusters from the Khan troika — Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman — as well as big Hollywood hits led by the Avengers movies has seen Bollywood lose some share of domestic theatrical revenues.Over the past five years, data from various sources such as EY, BookMyShow, Ormax Media, B&K research and industry estimates show that Hindi films’ share on the domestic box office, which used to be 60-65% in 2015, dropped to 45% in 2019. At the same time, the boxoffice share of Hollywood films, including dubbed versions, has gone up from 8.4% in 2015 to almost 20.8% in 2019, registering a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27%. The remaining share is taken up by films in other languages.The last two years — 2018 and 2019 — have been exceptionally good for Hollywood in India as Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame broke existing box-office records in the country. The total collection of Hollywood films in India was ?921 crore in 2018 and more than ?1,220 crore last year.“Today, watching films in theatres is not just about familiarity of experience. The desire for familiarity of experience is fulfilled by inordinately high amount of content present across streaming and modes of platforms,” said a trade analyst. “Hollywood films not only work in terms of the franchise model but they also demand a certain amount of atmospheric viewing. This is adequately fulfilled in theatres. A case in point is the success of 1917, which has no franchise, but works on sheer strength of experience and storytelling.”Given the lineup of upcoming films, the share of Hollywood films in total box-office collections is expected to go up to 25-30% in the next two to three years, experts said.This year will see the release of franchise films such as Dolittle, No Time to Die, Black Widow, Legally Bond 3, Fast & Furious 9, Wonder Woman 1984, Top Gun: Maverick, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Jungle Cruise, Snake Eyes and Eternals.73683049 Hollywood’s increasing share is positive news for multiplexes, said Rohit Dokania, senior vice president, research, IDFC Securities.“Hollywood films are doing much better at the box office in India and it’s a very positive sign for the multiplexes, which is now visible in their valuations,” he said. “Earlier, they were dependent on Bollywood for almost 65% of their footfalls. Now with increase in Hollywood films, multiplexes’ content is being derisked. Moreover, the profile of consumers watching Hollywood content has a higher propensity to buy F&B, which in turn further helps the multiplexes.”Hollywood studios have invested in dubbing in multiple regional languages in a bid to maximise revenue from India, said Ashish Saksena, COO, cinemas, BookMyShow. They’re also subtitling them to enable wider viewership, especially for complex, layered films such as Inception, Dunkirk, Joker, Interstellar etc., he said.“Studios are also investing in genres such as animation that typically didn’t perform well here by dubbing across regional languages and marketing these films on a wider scale, aiding audience interest for these niche genres,” Saksena said. The advent of streaming and other platforms has increased familiarity with Hollywood as well as the back catalogue, adding to the boost, experts said.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/36znpOY