Showing posts with label Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning. Show all posts
Hollywood movies deliver a hit for Warner Bros in India
9:16 AM
Studio doubles India market share this year as its bets on originals and franchise movies pay off amid poor run of Hindi films
Rajesh N Naidu (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; September 19, 2025)
Hollywood films have emerged handsome winners in 2025 outshining mainstream Bollywood films in the Indian box office. And the big hitters have been F1: The Movie, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Jurassic World: Rebirth and the latest, The Conjuring: The Last Rites.
Interestingly, in this smooth ride of Hollywood films in 2025, The US-based Warner Bros. Pictures saw its market share in the India collection jump two times in 2025.
“The right balance of mid-and-small and big films across diverse genres has worked for us,” said Denzil Dias, VP and managing director, India Theatrical, Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Till date, in 2025, Hollywood films have collected more than Rs 862 crore in India, half of that for Warner Bros. movies, accounting for 24% in 2024.
“We want to build an audience base. They will come for blockbuster films. But we also want mid-and-small-budget to work in theatres,” said Dias of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Dias stressed that after the pandemic audiences have become selective in their theatrical outings, making filmmaking far more serious and responsible affair. “But the silver lining is that audiences are willing to pay a premium price to watch good films in theatres,” he added.
In 2025, Warner Bros. Pictures films such as F1: The Movie, Final Destination Bloodlines, Superman, Weapons, A Minecraft Movie, Dune: Part Two, Sinners and The Conjuring: Last Rites have performed noticeably well in India, taking the cumulative collection of its films to Rs 432 crore till date.
“For us, film distribution and marketing are not just about releasing films in the right theatres and getting the right number of shows. It is also about releasing films in the right language,” explained Dias.
“We were clear about releasing Jurassic World: Rebirth in dubbed Hindi version. Today, 40% of our collection in India came from the Hindi dubbed version of the film,” he shared. Universal Pictures, which distributed Jurassic World: Rebirth, has a tie-up with Warner Bros. Picture to distribute films in India.
Two things have worked well for Warner Bros. Pictures. The studio has taken bold calls by backing mid-and-small originals such as Weapons and Companion, which paid off. Another aspect is handling of its franchise films.
“Ultimately only storytelling works and audiences smell a good film promptly. We have nurtured our franchise films. We identified filmmakers who were passionate about our franchise films. So, they made these films like a fan, which worked for these films,” Dias said.
In India, Warner Bros. Pictures has been collaborating with local influencers to review their films in Hindi which helped market their films well and reach a wide audience.
“We must understand what the audience wants. We sensed an opportunity in audiences’ resonance with games-related IPs. That is how the idea of the Minecraft movie germinated,” pointed Dias.
In the coming months, the studio has two distinct releases: One Battle After Another and Bugonia. “Today, even a small film like Bugonia can be an event film if it brings like-minded people into theatres,” explained Dias.
Dias is quite optimistic about the performance of Hollywood films in India in the coming months. “India is a movie-loving country. This is a big positive. It is about being authentic by creating right awareness and good stories. Audiences largely reward such an authentic approach,” he said.
| Top Five hits for Warner Bros. Pictures (Rs crore) | |
| Film | India Collection |
| F1: THE MOVIE | 125 |
| THE CONJURING: LAST RITES | 100 |
| FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES | 74.1 |
| SUPERMAN | 59.5 |
| MINECRAFT | 15.6 |
| WEAPONS | 11.3 |
Hollywood set for a blockbuster 2025 in India
9:08 AM
Share of total box office collections expected to reach 22% in 2025, compared with just under 10% last year
Rajesh N Naidu (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; January 6, 2025)
Hollywood is on the verge of a successful year in India, with its share of total box office collections expected to more than double in 2025, reaching 22% from less than 10% last year, said producers and industry analysts.
This dramatic rise is fuelled by three key trends—a growing appetite for larger-than-life spectacles, rising acceptance of Hollywood films dubbed in regional languages, and a high recall value of intellectual properties (IPs) that had already captivated audiences.
In the past decade, the contribution of Hollywood films to the total box office collection ranged between 18% and 20%.
Devang Sampat, managing director at Cinepolis India, said, “We expect the contribution of Hollywood films to exceed 20% after a not-so-satisfactory last year. The 2025 lineup features films that resonate strongly with the Indian audience.”
Movies such as Avatar: Fire and Ash, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Captain America: Brave New World, Karate Kid: Legends, Jurassic World Rebirth, Superman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Now You See Me 3 boast a strong fan following in India.
Girish Wankhede, a movie trade analyst, said, “I think the contribution of Hollywood films to India’s total box office collection is likely to double compared to last year.” He added that 2024 experienced the ripple effects of strikes by writers and actors in Hollywood, which impacted the production and performance of tentpole films—high-budget, studio-backed money-spinners.
According to US-based consulting firm Camoin Associates, the strikes—centred around demands for fair compensation, better working conditions, and concerns about the use of AI—by writers and actors from May to September 2023 likely caused an economic loss of over $5 billion across the US. The disruption also affected the worldwide performance of Hollywood films.
Data from American movie database website Box Office Mojo reveals that the cumulative worldwide collection of 200 Hollywood films released in 2024 was $24.80 billion—a 26% decline.
Hollywood films set for release in India in 2025 are major tentpole productions designed to be experienced in theatres, not on mobile devices. This key factor has fuelled optimism for higher box office collections of Hollywood films in India.
Ameya Naik, producer and founder of Fantasy Films, an event management company said, “In India, over the past ten years, Hollywood films with strong recall value and recognizable IPs have performed exceptionally well, delivering box office collections of Rs 80-150 crore each in India alone.” He added that the success of such films is driven by their IPs, rather than the star power of actors.
In 2024, high-recall IP films such as Deadpool & Wolverine and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire demonstrated this trend, generating Rs 169.2 crore and Rs 134.4 crore, respectively, according to box office research firm Sacnilk.
Increasing acceptance of dubbed versions of tentpole films has also contributed significantly to Hollywood's growing success in India.
Jaidev Hemmady, a Hindi film scriptwriter, noted, “Studios in Hollywood have realized the importance of dubbing their films into regional languages in India. These dubbed versions have not only emerged as a valuable revenue stream for studios but have also expanded the audience base for tentpole Hollywood films in India.”
The trend is evident in the case of Mufasa: The Lion King, which collected over Rs 131.4 crore in India, according to Sacnilk. Notably, the Hindi dubbed version contributed Rs 44.1 crore to the total, surpassing the English original’s Rs 41.9 crore collection.
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