MUMBAI: Sony Pictures India has ended the year 2012 with the best year ever for a Hollywood studio at the Indian box office. With 12 titles releasing in the year, Sony Pictures finished the year with a total gross of Rs 2.17 billion at the Indian box-office.
Last year, Sony Pictures India also had the two top opening weekends of all time for Hollywood films in India with The Amazing Spider-Man (3D) at #1 (Rs 340 million opening weekend) and Skyfall at #2 (Rs 275 million opening weekend).
Both the films also reached their respective franchise lifetime highs. Half of Sony Pictures‘ titles in 2012 were released in four languages each and an additional one in two languages. Moreover, half the titles were released in 3D.
The Amazing Spider-Man also had the widest release so far reaching a record 650 cities.
Commented Sony Pictures India managing director Kercy Daruwala, "The Indian market continues to grow steadily with an increased interest in Hollywood films across languages and regions and parallel growth in the number of screens. We are proud to be at the forefront of this movement, and the top contributor to this market‘s growth for Hollywood."
Sony Pictures‘ line-up this year includes Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, M. Night Shyamalan‘s After Earth starring Jaden Smith and Will Smith, Elysium starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, Roland Emmerich‘s White House Down, Tom Hanks starrer Captain Philips and returns of successful franchises in Evil Dead, Grown Ups 2 and box office sensations The Smurfs 2 (3D).
Tag: Amazing Spider-Man
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Sony Pictures ends 2012 with total gross of Rs 2.17 billion in India
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Hollywood studios laud China’s willingness to treat US films more fairly
MUMBAI: The recent move of the Chinese government to comply with a World Trade Organisation order to treat US films more fairly has been lauded by studio executives in Hollywood.
But privately, they wonder how it will shake out and when because the Chinese government has yet to sign a WTO Memorandum of Understanding.
Hollywood had agreed to live with the resulting agreement because it could be revisited in five years. A fine ticking point was revenue-sharing: The studios wanted 30 per cent but had to settle for 25 (previously, it was 13 to 17 per cent).
Beijing-based DMG Entertainment’s CEO Dan Mintz said, “Obviously, from the top-line level, all of this is good. But it‘s important to remember that the quota is just one layer that is used by the powers that be to control things. They have censorship, they control all the screens and hold control over when a film comes on against which competition and how long it stays in theatres.”
The Chinese market is too hot for Hollywood studios not to keep trying. In 2008, the local box-office intake was $630 million; in 2011, it reached a massive $2.1 billion. Theatre construction is also growing by bounds spurring a proliferation of state-of-the-art 3D screens. And this is where Hollywood has the upper hand as its proliferation of 3D films deliver much-needed content.
It may be noted that five of China‘s 10 top-grossing films in 2011 were 3D studio releases, all of them from Hollywood. In 2011, Transformers: Dark of the Moon (3D) was China‘s top-grossing title, earning $172 million.
Interestingly, had the new revenue-sharing deal been in effect then, Paramount would have seen a return of $43 million compared to $26 million.
The first 3D release set to open in China this year is Titanic 3D, in early April. No one — not even the film‘s overseas distributor, Fox — knows whether the new rules will be in place by then, but most studios believe they will by summer.
It is also uncertain as to which 3D titles China will accept this year from films like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, Brave, The Avengers, Men in Black III and Madagascar 3.