Action movies turn box office grossers for Hollywood in India

New Delhi: It seems India’s love for Hollywood is restricted to action spectacles and larger-than-life movies vis-a-vis romantic comedies and dramas!

Musical romantic comedy Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, released in the country last Friday, grossed around ₹ 92 lakh during its opening weekend. The film, based on the music of iconic Swedish pop group ABBA, crossed more than $230 million in box office collections worldwide, including $91 million plus in the US.

But its India debut failed to create waves, much like other critically acclaimed Hollywood films such as Steven Spielberg’s political thriller The Post (Rs 4.17 crore), epic historical period drama Ben-Hur (Rs 3.8 crore), adventure drama The Revenant (Rs 3.50 crore) and musical romantic comedy La La Land (Rs 8 crore).

In contrast, at last count, Tom Cruise’s action spy film Mission: Impossible-Fallout raked in ₹ 67.95 crore in India. Earlier in the year, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War emerged as the highest grossing Hollywood film in the country with collections of ₹ 227.43 crore, while the studio’s other superhero flicks, including Black Panther and Deadpool 2, earned ₹ 52.53 crore and ₹ 58.08 crore, respectively.

“With Hollywood, the love (in India) is clearly restricted to big event films and horror flicks, around which there is always curiosity and hype,” said film exhibition and trade expert Girish Johar.

Atul Mohan, editor of trade magazine Complete Cinema added that old Hollywood franchises such as Mission Impossible, Transformers and Spider-Man remained traditional favourites in India. Action and adventure flicks besides science fiction narratives are the kind of genres that bring big business. Plus, more installments in the franchise mean more buzz and curiosity.

“From 300 to 700 and now nearly 2,000, the screen count for these films has gone up big time, often more than many Hindi films, with multiplexes allotting them more shows over the years due to their greater mass appeal. The count for critically acclaimed, content-driven films is much lower because they are appreciated mainly by the urban, discerning metro audiences,” Mohan said.