“Avengers: Infinity War” broke yet latest record by notching up the highest opening weekend for a Hollywood film in India, making Rs94.3 crore by the end of Sunday. Earlier, the Anthony and Joe Russo directed film had managed the highest opening day collections for a Hollywood film in India, earning Rs31.3 crore on Friday. The collections grew to Rs30.5 crore and Rs32.5 crore on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
The record for the highest opening weekend for a Hollywood film in India so far was held by action film Fast and Furious 8 (2017) that had earned Rs 51.19 crore, Avengers has clearly broken the record by a wide margin.
“The response to the film has been nothing short of phenomenal and the collections speak for themselves,” said Atul Mohan, editor of trade magazine Complete Cinema adding that the film has already crossed the lifetime collections of Rs 72.96 crore of the previous installment Avengers: Age of Ultron.
To be sure, Avengers is not just competing with Hollywood films.
It has managed the highest opening weekend for all films released in 2018, and that includes big-ticket Bollywood offerings like Padmaavat (Rs75 crore) and Baaghi 2 (Rs72. 5 crore).
According to trade website Box Office India, only six other films, all in Hindi, have ever had higher opening weekends in India. The list includes Tiger Zinda Hai (Rs114.93 crore), Sultan (Rs180.36 crore), Dangal (Rs107.01 crore), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Rs102.60 crore), Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (Rs129.77 crore) and Dhoom 3 (Rs107.61 crore) but all six were festive releases.
“The beauty of the Avengers collections also lies in the fact that it released in a non-festive weekend and had a much limited release (compared to many Bollywood films),” said film trade and exhibition expert Girish Johar. Released in about 2,100 screens, Disney restricted the screening of the film to DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives)-compliant theatres.
DCI is a joint venture of several film studios, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Co. and Warner Bros, to set up a common set of requirements that ensure a high and uniform standard of digital cinema viewing. Films like Fast and Furious 7 had earlier broken the norm by releasing in non-DCI theatres too.
But there are other things working in Avengers’ favour.
“Ticket prices are about 20% higher in multiplexes, but that doesn’t seem to be a deterrent,” the expert said. “The previous installment had already set the base for this one and Disney invested in pretty aggressive marketing across platforms.”
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