Joker's re-release in India reflects growing popularity of Holywood movies

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The appeal of Hollywood movies in India has grown manifold over the years and leveraging the growing consumption of English films, Warner Bros Pictures has now decided to re-release Joker on February 14.

The Joaquin Phoenix-starrer released in India on October 2 last year and managed to collect Rs 60 crore in theatrical collections.

The movie held its ground at the Indian box office despite seeing competition from War and Telugu blockbuster Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy.

Joker's success was surprising for the industry as it was an adult film and released only in English. Yet, it saw Indian movie-goers coming in large numbers to the theatres, signaling that Indian audiences have matured to select beyond mass films and star-driven movies.

But Joker's release also points out another interesting success story— the increasing share of theatrical revenues of Hollywood films in India.

A category that started at two percent (contribution at Indian box office) a decade ago, now is slowly catching up with the 15- 20 percent range of the national cumulative box office.

In fact, last year Avengers: Endgame became the highest-selling Hollywood movie on BookMyShow by selling 8.6 million tickets.

While the superhero flick contributed a significant chunk to the overall revenues of Hollywood films in India last year with collections to the tune of Rs 373 crore, other English ventures put up a strong total as well like the The Lion King that earned Rs 150 crore in India.

In all, Hollywood scored in the range of Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 1,200 crore in India.

The Hollywood pie growing is a good sign especially for multiplexes as their dependence on Bollywood blockbusters gets lesser. Plus, the target audience of English films have higher spending power which means better F&B revenues for theatres.

Take the example of PVR, one of the leading multiplex players in India.

In Q3FY20, the company’s F&B revenues were up by 13 percent, supported by robust growth in average F&B spend per person of 12 percent.