In two days since its release on Wednesday, Tom-Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has collected Rs 21 crore at the Indian box office, according to multiplex operators and film trade experts. The seventh film of the MI series, where secret agent Ethan Hunt can be seen doing a dangerous bike stunt, may earn around Rs 40-50 crore more over Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to analysts, helping it touch Rs 60-70 crore in net box-office collections in five days in India.
For a Hollywood film, the numbers that MI 7 may deliver over five days is a sign of a growing trend at the Indian BO, says Devang Sampat, chief executive officer at Cinepolis India.
“Interest in Hollywood films by Indian audiences has been on the rise over the last few years,” he says. For all you know, MI 7 may even touch Rs 100 crore in terms of collections at the Indian box office, given the high level of interest and curiosity in the film,” he says.
At a time when Bollywood films have been struggling at the box office, the interest in Hollywood films stands in stark contrast. Some of the reasons for this growing interest in Hollywood films is a larger-than-life cinematic experience, neatly choreographed action sequences and stunts, superior VFX, storylines and performances, say experts.
“Hollywood films are also increasingly being dubbed in various Indian languages, which encourages Indian viewers to watch them at the nearest theatre,” says Kunal Sawhney, chief operating officer, CineLine, which runs the MovieMax chain of theatres across the country.
In the last seven months of 2023, for instance, Hollywood films have registered Rs 476 crore net collections at the Indian box office, according to film exhibitors and distributors. This has come on the back of films such as Vin-Diesel-starrer Fast X (Rs 110 crore), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3 (Rs 60 crore), John Wick: Chapter 4 (Rs 51 crore), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Rs 47 crore) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Rs 44 crore).
The net earnings achieved so far this year for Hollywood is also higher than the box-office collections for the same period last year. For perspective, Hollywood films delivered net earnings of Rs 393 crore at the Indian box office between January to July last year. Years 2020 and 2021 were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and are therefore not comparable.
However, if calendar year 2019 is taken into account, which is considered among the best years for Hollywood in India, 2023’s BO performance for January-July has already touched 60% of collections seen four years ago. Hollywood films had achieved Rs 800 crore in net collections between January and July 2019, data shows.
For the full year of 2019, Hollywood saw net collections of Rs 1,225 crore, according to film trade experts, while 2022 saw collections of Rs 917 crore and the Covid-affected 2021 saw collections of Rs 383 crore at the Indian box office.