NEW DELHI: Amazon Prime Video will premiere American monster film Godzilla vs Kong on 14 August in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages. The film, released in Indian theatres just before the second covid-19 wave in March, had made Rs46.58 crore in box office collections, bringing some cheer to the ailing exhibition industry.
Trade experts had, however, pointed out that the business of the film was driven entirely by southern India. Around 70% of the numbers made by it came from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Mysore, Tamil Nadu and Kerala according to trade website Box Office India while several Hindi-speaking markets especially Maharashtra faced covid-19 curbs and restrictions. The response to the film was better than previous Hollywood offerings, Tenet and Wonder Woman which made Rs12.57 crore and Rs18.36 crore respectively, having released soon after reopening of cinemas last October.
Godzilla vs Kong is the 36th film in the Godzilla franchise, the 12th film in the King Kong franchise, and the fourth Godzilla film to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio. It stars Alexander Skarsgård, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Shun Oguri, Eiza González, Julian Dennison, Kyle Chandler, and Demián Bichir.
To be sure, urban, English-language viewers, the primary audience for Hollywood films, have long made the transition to OTT from television, given the diverse and targeted content on offer. It is not uncommon, for instance, to see shows like The Big Bang Theory, FRIENDS, Suits and Brooklyn Nine-Nine trending on Netflix. Moreover, streaming platforms are increasingly banking on niche, foreign language cinema including those in Korean, Danish, French, Dutch, Spanish, among others to draw audiences in India. The covid-19 pandemic, which has forced people to stay at home, has exposed viewers to more global content as they become comfortable with subtitles as well as stories that resonate with them.
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