Tag: The Batman

Hollywood’s Indian box office: Transitioning from superhero dominance to a broader landscape

MUMBAI: The Indian – read Hindi cinema- box office has been going through some earth shaking changes with sleeper movies emerging as gargantuan block busters and big films with A-listers ending up as disasters without even a whimper.

But what’s been happening with Hollywood cinema in India?

Hollywood films have experienced considerable fluctuations in their box office performance in India over the past decade. The late 2010s saw significant success, primarily driven by superhero films. The pandemic then interrupted this trajectory, leading to a period of decline in Hollywood’s market share.

Ormax Media has examined Hollywood’s box office journey in India, from the pre-pandemic peak influenced by the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and other superhero franchises to the post-pandemic environment where Hollywood’s share has decreased, but new genres have emerged as significant contributors in its latest report – Hollywood in India – The decline in numbers.

The report says that the year 2019 represented a peak for Hollywood in India, with cumulative gross box office earnings reaching Rs 1,595 crore. This growth resulted in Hollywood securing a 15 per cent share of the Indian box office, becoming the second-highest contributor by language, after Hindi cinema. In 2019, the total gross earnings of Hollywood films in India, across both English and dubbed versions, surpassed those of the Tamil and Telugu film industries.

Indian audiences, with increasing exposure to global content and drawn to large-scale visual productions, attended Hollywood releases in record numbers. This pre-pandemic success was driven by major event films that resonated strongly with young, urban audiences. Global franchises invested significantly in localised marketing strategies for the Indian market, which yielded substantial returns. By 2019, Hollywood studios were no longer niche players in India but were competing with local industries for top box office positions, with superhero films playing a leading role.

The superhero genre was a primary driver of Hollywood’s strong performance in India during the late 2010s. The MCU and other competing universes cultivated a significant fan base in the country. Each new Avengers installment achieved greater success than its predecessor, with Avengers: Endgame reaching a record Rs 433 crore in India. 2019 also saw multiple other superhero films contribute to Hollywood’s Rs 1,500+ crore total. This period was characterised by a consistent supply of highly anticipated films, particularly from Marvel Studios, alongside releases from DC and other franchises.

However, maintaining this momentum after Avengers: Endgame proved challenging. The culmination of a decade of storytelling, particularly the conclusion of Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Iron Man, marked a significant point for superhero fans in India. While the MCU’s Phase 4 introduced new characters and stories, the reception was less enthusiastic, reflecting a global trend of decreasing audience engagement with superhero films.

Post-Endgame, while some MCU films performed adequately, they did not achieve the record-breaking success of previous installments. Many underperformed expectations, aligning with a global trend where most superhero films in 2023 did not reach the billion-dollar mark globally. DC films also faced challenges. This indicates a shift in audience preferences regarding superhero content.

Consequently, Hollywood’s overall market share in India declined from approximately 15 per cent in 2019 to single digits by 2023. This was accompanied by a decrease in footfalls. The impact of superhero releases on Hollywood’s India earnings has diminished. Before the pandemic, a major Marvel release could contribute significantly to Hollywood’s annual box office in India.

However, this trend has seen a decline since 2020. Spider-Man: No Way Home in December 2021 was an exception, achieving a gross of around Rs 250 crore in India. However, other Marvel Phase 4 films achieved more modest results. By 2022, while Indian theaters had fully reopened, Hollywood released fewer films.

Although significant releases like The Batman, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Jurassic World Dominion, and Avatar: The Way of Water contributed to box office revenue, it was not a record year. In 2023, despite the overall Indian box office reaching a record Rs 12,000 crore, Hollywood’s share decreased to nine per cent, with the contribution of the superhero genre declining significantly.

In contrast to the declining dominance of superhero films post-pandemic, other Hollywood blockbusters gained prominence in India. Audiences showed increased interest in genres such as science fiction epics, biographical dramas, creature features, and animated films. Avatar: The Way of Water achieved the highest gross for a Hollywood film in India, surpassing Avengers: Endgame. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer also performed well, indicating an audience for diverse, high-concept filmmaking. Additionally, the monster-verse films and animated features have found a significant audience. In 2024, several animated films were among the top Hollywood grossers in India, highlighting the genre’s current strength.

Moving forward, Hollywood will aim to regain market share in India by focusing on diverse and innovative content, supported by effective marketing strategies. The post-pandemic success of films like Avatar: The Way of Water and Oppenheimer, along with the growing appeal of animated films, suggests that while the era of superhero dominance may have passed, Indian audiences still seek compelling cinematic experiences.

However, reaching the peak of 2019 may present a considerable challenge in the current landscape.
One can’t forget that in the years preceding the pandemic, specifically in 2019, Hollywood’s Indian box office reached a significant milestone, achieving a gross revenue of Rs 1,595 crore and a 15 per cent market share. This growth was largely propelled by franchise films and shared universes, particularly within the superhero genre.iin 2019 marked a peak in this trend, generating substantial box office returns.

However, the momentum experienced in the superhero genre prior to the pandemic began to wane in the subsequent period. Following the reopening of theaters in 2022, Hollywood faced challenges in regaining its previous market share in India. Notably, films outside the superhero genre demonstrated that Indian audiences were increasingly receptive to large-scale productions and diverse narratives.

April 20, 2025
Apple TV+ greenlights ‘Sugar’ with Colin Farrell

MUMBAI: Following a highly competitive situation, Apple TV+ has announced a series Sugar to feature Colin Farrell. It is a new genre-bending series hailing from creator and executive producer Mark Protosevich ‘Thor’, with the actor of ‘The Batman’ to be the executive producer and star in the lead role.

Hailing from Apple Studios, the new series is set to be directed by Academy Award nominee Fernando Meirelles ‘City of God’ who will also serve as executive producer, and executive produced by Academy and Emmy Award nominee Simon Kinberg ‘X-Men’, Audrey Chon ‘Invasion’ and Scott Greenberg ‘The Guilty’. Chip Vucelich will also be executive producer.

Sugar marks the second collaboration for Kinberg’s Genre Films and Apple TV+, and will stream alongside the series ‘Invasion’, which recently received a second season renewal. The series is a science-fiction drama series co-created, written and executive produced by Kinberg and David Weil.

June 13, 2022
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness creating magic at box office

Mumbai: The summer movie season soared to a magical start thanks to “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.” The superhero action extravaganza grossed an estimated $185 million in ticket sales in its first weekend in US and Canadian theaters, the Walt Disney Co. said on Sunday.

Not only did it more than double the opening of the first “Doctor Strange”, which opened to $85 million in 2016, but it’s also the biggest opener of the year, ahead of “The Batman’s” $134 million; the second biggest of the pandemic, behind “Spider-Man: Far From Home’s” $260.1 million; and the sixth biggest of all time globally.

International markets are holding fast and setting new records. Friday added five more hubs to take the total to 49. India debuted the Sam Raimi-directed pic at $4.3 million for No. 1 and the fourth-highest Hollywood launch day of all time. Spain’s No. 1 start of $2.5 million is the best opening day of the pandemic and Turkey’s $700K set a benchmark for the top opening Friday in history. In total, “Doctor Strange and Multiverse of Madness” have already made a commanding $450 million.

Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the sequel to “Doctor Strange” (2016) and the 28th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Sam Raimi, written by Michael Waldron, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, alongside Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Rachel McAdams. In the film, Strange protects America Chavez (Gomez), a teenager capable of travelling the multiverse, from the villainous, Wanda Maximoff (Olsen).

“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” premiered at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on 2 May, and was released in the United States on 6 May, as part of phase four of the MCU. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Raimi’s direction, the visual effects, musical score, and performances of the cast (particularly Cumberbatch, Olsen, and Gomez), although the pacing received some criticism. The film currently sits at 75 percent of fresh critics’ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

Spider-Man is at least partially to thank for the massive debut of “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness”: Benedict Cumberbatch’s powerful sorcerer appeared prominently in “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, which has become the third biggest movie of all time since opening in December. Additionally, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff is seen as a plus in regards to attracting a potentially younger female demo than usual for an MCU title.

Fanbase favourite, Sam Raimi stepped up to direct “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”, which reportedly cost around $200 million to make — though that number doesn’t account for the many more millions spent on marketing and promotion.

The film also has a gigantic footprint. It’s playing in 4,534 theaters in the US and Canada alone, which according to Disney is the seventh widest opening ever. Premium format screens, including IMAX and 3D, accounted for 36 percent of the overall box office.

“This is a total win for the industry for whom the last two summers almost didn’t exist in terms of box office,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “Marvel has been kicking off summers for over a decade. This is a return to normalcy.”

The success of “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” only helps build momentum for the big summer movies on the way, like “Top Gun: Maverick” on 27 May. “We’ve got a real summer movie season on our hands, something we couldn’t have imagined two years ago,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

There was little left for other movies playing in theaters. Part of that is due to the fact that many multiplexes chose to pack their theaters with wall-to-wall “Doctor Strange” screenings.

Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Bad Guys” fell to second place in its third weekend with an estimated $9.8 million, while “Sonic the Hedgehog 2”, from Paramount, landed in third with $6.2 million.

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” took fourth with $3.9 million, bringing its domestic total to $86 million. And in fifth place was another multiverse-themed film, “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” It had a slight dip in its seventh weekend but is still speeding along with an additional $3.3 million from 1,542 screens in its seventh weekend in theaters. The A24 film has grossed $41.6 million in total.

May 9, 2022
The Batman soars to a solid box office opening

Mumbai: Actor Robert Pattinson’s childhood dream of playing Batman turned into box office success and a dream-come-true for Warner Bros as “The Batman” packed a punch, exceeding expectations and grossing $128.5 million domestically in its opening weekend. It was the best opening weekend for a film since Sony Picture Entertainment’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home” earned $260.1 million in its December debut, according to box office tracker, Comscore.

The opening also served as a signal light of hope that moviegoers are eager for a return to theatres. Warner Bros has reportedly committed to a 45-day window of exclusivity in theatres. Following that 45-day period, “The Batman” will hit HBO Max for streaming.
Internationally, “The Batman” loomed large collecting $120 million in box office receipts in 74 overseas markets. The film had the best turnout in the United Kingdom, where it earned $18.4 million, followed by Mexico, where it earned $12 million. Other top territories include Australia ($9.2 million), Brazil ($8.8 million), France ($8.5 million), Germany ($5.1 million) and Korea ($4.4 million). The Batman doesn’t open in China, which is currently the world’s biggest theatrical market, until 18 March. It won’t play at all in Russia after Warner Bros opted to pull its release following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

In India, “The Batman” opened on 4 March to enthusiastic audiences and, according to BoxOfficeIndia, the film has raked in Rs 7.5 crore net on the second day of its release. Now, the total collection of the film in India is Rs 14 crore. The film is doing well in the metro cities and with Maharashtra allowing cinema halls at 100 per cent occupancy, this has boosted the collections.

The dark take on the character, in which Batman investigates corruption in Gotham following the murders of several of the city’s prominent figures by the sadistic serial killer, the Riddler, has earned positive reviews. Variety’s Peter Debruge naming it a critic’s pick and writing that the “grounded, frequently brutal and nearly three-hour film noir registers among the best of the genre, even if, or more aptly because of its willingness to dismantle and interrogate the very concept of superheroes.”

Audiences are also being extremely receptive, with the film scoring an ‘A-‘ CinemaScore, indicating strong approval from general ticket buyers. In addition, critics have praised Robert Pattinson for his fresh/gritty interpretation of the character.

Pattinson, who rose to global fame with the Twilight movies, follows in the footsteps of Adam West, Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton, Christian Bale and, more recently, Ben Affleck, among others, to play Bruce Wayne/Batman. Zoë Kravitz, who plays Catwoman was also singled out for critical commendation. Directed by Matt Reeves, “The Batman” also stars Colin Farrell, Andy Serkis and Paul Dano.

As reported in Variety, domestic audience demographics revealed a heavily male crowd for “The Batman” at 67 per cent, with the 18-34 crowd at 62 per cent, per PostTrak. Diversity draw was 41 per cent Caucasian, 26 per cent Latino and Hispanic, 17 per cent Black, and 16 per cent Asian/other.

Other CinemaScore audience diagnostics are showing males at 65 per cent, giving the movie an A-, females a B+ at 35 per cent. Those over 35 factored at 31 per cent of the crowd, while those over 50 showed up at 11 per cent. A- grades largely throughout all demos.

Prior to this weekend, Tom Holland’s video game adaptation “Uncharted” held the title for the biggest opening weekend of the year with $44 million in initial sales. Now in second place, the Sony Pictures film pocketed $11 million from 3,875 theaters between Friday and Sunday, pushing “Uncharted” past $100 million at the domestic box office. Overseas, the PG-13 “Uncharted” added another $17.4 million from 64 foreign markets. Those revenues take the film to $171.3 million internationally and $271.5 million globally.

Elsewhere, Channing Tatum’s canine adventure “Dog” landed in third position with $ six million from 3,507 theaters. The road-trip buddy comedy is somewhat of an anomaly because it has managed to entice audiences without involving superheroes or intense CG-action sequences. “Dog” continues to surprise at the box office, crossing $40 million in North America over the weekend.

Holdovers “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Death on the Nile” took spots four and five on domestic box office charts.

March 7, 2022
Omicron surge: Uncertainty prevails at theatrical box office worldwide

Los Angeles: With the boom in box office grosses from ‘Spiderman: No Way Home’ beginning to subside and the Omicron surge taking its toll, movie theatres worldwide are facing a sobering reality that the first two months of the 2022 box office could turn out to be a gloomy dry spell.

In the past week, according to TheWrap.com, Sony moved its next Marvel movie, the Jared Leto-led, ‘Morbius’ from late January to 1 April. Then, on Friday, Disney pulled the early-March Pixar film, ‘Turning Red’ from theaters entirely, instead of making it the third straight feature film from the animation studio to get an exclusive release on Disney+.

That means that the US theaters will soon be lacking all three of the major ingredients for box office riches at this time of year — holiday holdovers, Oscar contenders, and major new releases — with only the prospect of Sony’s Tom Holland action film ‘Uncharted’ on 18 February and Warner Bros.’ ‘The Batman’ on 4 March is on the horizon to lure audiences in large numbers.

Even prior to the pandemic, box office performances in January and February have been mixed. On one hand, films like ‘Hidden Figures’, ‘Bad Boys for Life’, and Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ found success with audiences in these early-year slots, combined with December releases like ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ and Oscar contenders like ‘La La Land’ to provide a solid start for the year. However, for the next four to eight weeks, the 2022 box office appears unlikely to see those levels of success play out again.

To complicate matters, Omicron is beginning to play havoc in Hollywood as a surge in cases is causing production delays. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, despite a rebound in film and TV production in late 2021, as the Covid-19 crises began to subside, the recent emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant now threatens production output as studios push back work once again. “We’re not seeing the typical level of rebound of production,” FilmLA President Paul Audley told The Times. “We’re hearing from people who are asking to cancel or postpone their permits right now.” FilmLA is the nonprofit group that handles film permits for the Hollywood region.

The International Box Office faces similar yet unique challenges as the new Omicron variant causes concern around the globe. The new year begins as did the previous one, with cinema closures in several markets. Europe has been particularly affected, with Netherlands and Denmark in complete lockdown and restrictions in many others. Meanwhile, a slowdown in Hollywood productions due to Omicron could eventually hit the International Box Office’s bottom line. Although Q1 is looking soft, some studio executives are hopeful that the overseas landscape, particularly in the northern hemisphere, will settle down by spring with moviegoers ready to return in Q2 with some normalcy.

A unique international box office wildcard, as reported by Deadline, is China. With a powerhouse 44 per cent of the 2021 worldwide box office haul, China has been more ornery to navigate than usual, notably not approving a single movie with a Marvel character in 2021, from Disney’s ‘Black Widow’ straight through to Sony’s ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ and having a huge influence on the International Box Office in the process.

In general, China appears to be putting the brakes on Hollywood. 2021 already saw fewer than 20 revenue-sharing movies allowed in, versus 30-plus in 2019. There are varying theories as to why this is happening, which include the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party, which put the focus on local so-called “propaganda” movies like the $900 million-plus grosser ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’. There also appears to be the targeted blackballing of Marvel. Some believe it may be linked to Black Widow’s depiction of communism, while some think the slate of films was a no-go as years-old comments allegedly made by ‘Eternals’ helmer Chloé Zhao surfaced last year.

However, notable Hollywood titles that did release in China in 2021 include ‘A Quiet Place Part II’, ‘F9’, ‘Godzilla vs Kong’, ‘Dune’, and ‘Free Guy’. China also allowed films such as ‘Jungle Cruise’ and ‘Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins’ which had already been out elsewhere for months. In doing so, USC professor and China expert Stanley Rosen told Deadline, “They are showing that they’re not closed off, but they are telling Hollywood, ‘We don’t really need you and we will pick and choose for whatever reasons we want to’.”

Does it matter to China that it left potentially hundreds of millions of dollars on the table by not releasing the Marvel movies? While an oft-heard refrain is that China doesn’t care about money, it’s also said the country does care about cultural power. And, though it may be entirely capable of churning out local films that gross well over $500M at home, without Hollywood products, sources believe it will not be able to feed its ever-growing number of screens (currently 82,248 and eyed at 100K by 2025).

Rosen stated, “They don’t need Hollywood as much as they used to, that’s very clear. But, they want to be the number one film market in the world and want to show themselves as a global power and not close off. That includes film, so they need to have Hollywood products to show that.”

As both the Domestic and International Box Offices eye a hopeful Q2, uncertainty remains as Covid-19 (including the Omicron strain) and China appear to hold blind cards to handing 2022 a winning box office prize.

January 15, 2022