It’s been 16 years since the first Fast and Furious film hit the silver screen and eight films later the franchise has yet to see a dull day in the Indian market.
With every new offering, the franchise has established a stronger hold in India and this has only served to raise expectations from the spin-off Hobbs and Shaw releasing on August 2 in the F&F series.
Talking to Moneycontrol, Girish Johar, film and trade business analyst, said, “The tracking of the film has been fantastic the team has promoted the film quite well. It is going to be on 2,000 plus screens across India in all languages. I think it will take a double-digit start at Rs 10 crore plus. Everyone is optimistic of the film.”
The Fast and Furious franchise is one of the top ranking franchises in India along with Avengers, SpiderMan, and Mission Impossible.
“The Fast and Furious franchise in the past has also delivered very well at the box office. In fact, it is one of the first few films to break the Rs 100 crore mark in the country. Since then it has been at the top recall value of the Indian audiences. This is basically because it entails a lot of action and a lot of quirk,” said Johar.
It was in 2015, when a Hollywood film scored its first century in India. With the success of Furious 7, the seventh installment in the Fast and Furious franchise, the film managed to earn as much as Rs 110 crore.
Since then Hollywood films have picked up pace in the country and revenues have been touching new highs.
While in 2016 The Jungle Book became the highest Hollywood grosser in India with Rs 188 crore, Avengers Infinity War took away that title last year grossing Rs 222.69 crore only to be superseded by its sequel Avengers Endgame that pocketed over Rs 365 crore.
Now the expectations from Hobbs and Shaw is high and the buzz is that it could become another Hollywood biggie this year after Avengers: Endgame, SpiderMan Far From Home and The Lion King.
According to Johar, the film will be leading box office earnings on its the first day.
In terms of competition from Bollywood, there is only one new release Khandaani Shafakhana which is targeting a niche audience as it deals with a taboo subject that is presented in a quirky manner.
Apart from that there are hold-overs like Super 30 and Judgemental Hai Kya along with a Hollywood venture The Lion King.
But it looks like Hollywood will dominate Bollywood this Friday.
“Hollywood is on a dream run. In fact, if you see July they led the monthly box office. They had two big releases (SpiderMan Far From home released on July 5 and The Lion King that hit Indian theatres on July 19) and they overshadowed the Hindi ones. July was dominated completely by Hollywood,” said Johar.
"Though I expected it, I was a little surprised to see The Lion King getting big numbers because India is a star-driven market and The Lion King had no star faces. I am not taking away the credit from Shah Rukh Khan, Aryan Khan and down south Jagapati Babu who dubbed the film to help penetrate the market but at the end of the day there were no star faces. This showed that the audiences have matured and they want to watch good content," said Johar.
Share of Hollywood films in India has increased over the years. A decade ago Hollywood ventures contributed three to four percent to the overall box office collection in India. The number peaked at 10 percent last year, said an EY 2019 report.
More and more Hollywood content is being released in India and the interest in the segment has also increased over the years.
The success in recent years has established India as a very lucrative market for global studios, the report added.
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