Showing posts with label Project Hail Mary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project Hail Mary. Show all posts
Lights, camera, action: Hollywood set for record India box-office glory
9:31 AM
Total collection reaches Rs. 1,424 crore in seven months of 2026, close to historical high seen in 2019
Rajesh N Naidu (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; August 31, 2036)
Mumbai: Hollywood is experiencing a standout performance in India this year buoyed by box-office wins of several releases. Total collections reached Rs. 1,424 crores in the first seven months of 2026, per a study by Ormax Media study, a media and entertainment research firm. Notably, the figure is close to Hollywood's historically high collection of Rs. 1,595 crores in 2019.
Films such as Obsession, Michael, Project Hail Mary, The Odyssey, Evil Dead Burn, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Lee Cronin's The Mummy, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day helped drive the stellar show.
Producers, distributors and film trade analysts are optimistic that the share of international films in India's total box-office collections will reach 20-25% this year, surpassing the historical high of 15% in 2019.
A key aspect in the success of Hollywood films is its appeal across genres. While biopics and epics such as Michael, The Odyssey and original IPs such as Project Hail Mary and Obsession found strong appeal among cinegoers, franchises such as Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Evil Dead Burn proved the power of loyal audience following.
"There is a Hollywood resurgence in India," said Suniel Wadhwa, cofounder and director at Karmic Films.
The share of international films in total box office collections slipped from 15% in 2019, to 9% in 2023, before recovering to 10% in 2025, said film trade analysts.
According to Ormax Media, between this January and July, this share has jumped to 17%. "Hollywood films' share in India's box office will cross 20% market share by the end of 2026," said Wadhwa of Karmic Films.
Producers are confident of the robust momentum sustaining thanks to the release lineup of mass and cult franchise films such as Avengers: Doomsday, Dune: Part Three, Godzilla Minus Zero, and Jumanji: Open World.
"Spider-Man is the highest-grossing Hollywood film in India," said producer Rajesh R Nair. "I estimate Avengers: Doomsday will be another blockbuster. It has already crossed $100 million in pre-sales globally. Indians have loved its trailer. Also, there is Dune: Part Three, which will release in the IMAX format, thereby further boosting collection. So, the overall Hollywood share could rise sharply."
Social media and streaming platforms are increasingly playing a key role in expanding the Indian audience base of Hollywood films.
Hollywood returns to India box office spotlight with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, The Odyssey and others
3:05 PM
Packed slate of major releases could help exhibitors rake in robust collections in the coming weeks
Rajesh N Naidu (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; July 15, 2026)
Mumbai: Hollywood’s tentpole films have steadily gained ground at the Indian box office over the past 18 months, a trend industry insiders expect to accelerate this month as a cluster of major releases arrives within a fortnight, boosting overall collections.
From superhero spectacle Spider-Man: Brand New Day and auteur-driven The Odyssey to kids and family entertainment Moana and horror genre Evil Dead Burn, Hollywood films offer exhibitors strong potential for robust collections in the coming weeks, exhibitors, film trade analysts and producers told ET.
“Hollywood has enjoyed a strong run in 2026, with films such as Obsession, Project Hail Mary and Michael, among others, reaffirming the strength of the English-language box office in India. The upcoming line-up is also remarkably diverse,” said Gautam Dutta, chief executive, revenue and operations at PVR Inox.
Diverse themes and audience segments are likely to play a pivotal role in the success of these event films, trade insiders said.
They foresee a highly favourable response, especially to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, given their loyal fan bases.
“There is a large fan base for director Christopher Nolan, actor Tom Holland and Marvel films in India,” said producer Rajesh R Nair. “The success of Hollywood films over the past year has become even more visible because of the weak content coming from Hindi cinema. In July, these four films are likely to perform well as there is almost no competition, even from regional cinema,” he added.
According to trade sources, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already generated pre-sales of Rs 5 crore in India, while The Odyssey has recorded pre-sales of around Rs 2 crore.
Distributors said the two films will be showcased extensively in premium-format screens, which is expected to further boost box-office collections in July.
“These Hollywood films will be released across premium large-format screens such as IMAX, ScreenX, 4DX and P[XL]. Ticket prices in these formats range from Rs 700 to Rs 3,300,” said Shaaminder Malik, distributor and film business expert.
“One must also bear in mind that they will be released in multiple Indian languages. Therefore, these global tentpole releases are likely to drive repeat visits to theatres, thereby boosting occupancy and collections.”
Film trade analysts estimate that, cumulatively, these four films could contribute close to Rs 400 crore to the Indian box office. They pointed out that a collection of Rs 20-30 crore is generally enough for a Hollywood film to be considered a hit in India.
“I expect The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day to outperform the other Hollywood releases in the coming weeks. Both films can easily collect at least Rs 300 crore, given the high level of audience interest,” said Girish Johar, producer and film business expert.
Ryan Gosling told me, ‘It’s so nice to have a cast member, it’s nice to not be alone’-Priya Kansara
4:31 PM
Priya Kansara (centre) with Ryan Gosling (top left) and the rest of the crew from ‘Project Hail Mary’
Actor Priya Kansara on stepping into ‘Project Hail Mary’ alongside Ryan Gosling, as the AI voice of his spaceship
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; April 19, 2026)
British actor of Indian descent Priya Kansara broke out with Nida Manzoor’s much-loved Polite Society (2023) before appearing in Bridgerton 2 (2022). Recently, she stepped into the big-ticket Hollywood film with Project Hail Mary, voicing Mary, the vessel’s onboard AI in the Ryan Gosling-starrer. For Kansara, the decision wasn’t driven by scale alone.
“I didn’t know about it when I got the call,” she admits. “My agent asked, ‘How do you feel about Ryan Gosling?’ I felt this is an interesting call.” The setup was unusual — she performed her voice live on set. “Directors Phil [Lord] and Christopher [Miller] wanted me to come to set and lend my voice live for Ryan so that he had somebody to play against. For me, it was a masterclass, an opportunity to learn from people I’ve long admired.”
Gosling didn’t know she was on set. They recorded scenes in multiple languages before introducing herself. “We did the scene in several languages for fun. After the shot, I said Hi and he was like, ‘You speak so many languages.’ And I told him that I just wrote them down. He said, ‘It’s so nice to have a cast member, it’s nice to not be alone.’ That was sweet.”
Moving from period drama, action-comedy to voice her work reflects a clear refusal to be boxed in. But Kansara believes “learning and growing” will only take her forward. “I want to expand the world in which I live in and what other people see. I want to do something interesting. I started with a period drama, then I became a witch hunter, then Polite Society happened, then I voiced a spaceship. These are things I never would have anticipated.”
She boasts of her diverse upbringing, as reflected in her choices. Says she grew up “doing street dance and Bharatanatyam, attending a Gujarati school, watching Bollywood films and TV with my mum, and watching James Bond and action films with my dad. I feel lucky to have had a diverse upbringing.”
Having come up in an era shaped by inclusive casting, Kansara acknowledges the shift, but remains cautious. “There definitely are challenges. Sometimes representation, diversity, and inclusion still feels surface level, like a checkbox item. But the South Asian diaspora is growing within the industry. The breadth of work has increased and my career is an example of that.”
On Bollywood aspirations
Priya Kansara says, “It would be cool. I am open to whatever comes my way.”
My grandmother was one of the first female doctors in India; graduated in 1929-Aditya Sood
9:04 AM
Aditya Sood, producer of Ryan Gosling-starrer Project Hail Mary, spoke to us about how life took him from watching pirated VHS tapes to taking the punt on the biggest movie Hollywood has made in 2026
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; April 5, 2026)
There’s a very specific kind of frenzy that only a big-screen spectacle can create in India. Think when Dhurandhar: The Revenge found itself sold out in paid preview shows. That’s what happened to Project Hail Mary. IMAX shows sold out days in advance, with 3 am screenings filling up after excited cinephiles waged a war to ensure the film releases in IMAX widely.
When we tell Aditya Sood this — that people have been trying for days to get tickets — he is both amused and moved.
He says, “Obviously, you want to see passion. We’re so passionate about making the films. So to see that being met with passion from people who want to see the film… it should be seen on the biggest screen possible.”
There’s something telling in that response. Because if there’s one thread that runs through Sood’s journey, from a kid watching pirated VHS tapes in Seattle to producing one of the biggest sci-fi films of the decade, is that of faith in the big screen experience.
Project Hail Mary arrives with something almost unfashionable in the current climate — hope. “We like to say we want to make movies that are at least 51 per cent optimistic… We understand that the world is complicated. We don’t want to be over the top or saccharine. There’s real struggle out there. But we really want people to come out of the theatre feeling better than when they came in.”
He credits directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller with sharpening that idea further. “They feel their mission as filmmakers is to show models of goodness in the world. And I think there’s no better mission than that.”
For Indian audiences, where the idea of a “producer” often collapses into financier, studio head, or even auteur, Sood’s role can feel elusive. He laughs about this, particularly when explaining his job to extended family.
“Producer can mean a lot of different things. I’ll tell you about what I do… I really do what’s called creative producing. You start from the very beginning — finding an idea, a book, a script. You work with the writer, develop it, then put it together with the director, actors, all the creative talent. I’m not writing the cheque, the studio is, but my job is to protect the creative vision and do it in a fiscally responsible way. Someone once told me: be the most business-minded person on the creative team or the most creative-minded person on the business team. If you can translate between those two worlds, there will always be a job for you.”
If audiences are only now going to watch Project Hail Mary, Sood has been living with it for six years. “Anytime you get that feeling where you can’t put something down, you must know there is something powerful in there worth going forward with. I started reading the book at noon and finished at 8 pm. You know there’s something special. It can take years and years and a lot of missteps… but if you don’t believe in it, it’s never going to happen. The only thing you really have is your own point of view and the courage of your conviction.”
For all its scale, Project Hail Mary carries small, deeply personal imprints — Easter eggs that quietly tether a global story to one man’s history. Sood shares one of them with particular affection. “We were figuring out which country built which module of the ship… and I said, the medical module should be from India. My mother is a doctor. My grandmother was one of the first female doctors in India, she graduated in 1929. Our production designer surprised me with a plaque. The company that built the medical robot was ‘Rekashanti’ — my mom and grandmother’s names.”
Born in England, raised in Seattle, in a time before global connectivity, cinema became a bridge back to India. “I come from a family of doctors. So there was no connection to cinema except how it kept us tied to India. We probably had the first VCR on the block. We didn’t have a dining table, but we had that. I watched Star Wars three times a day for an entire summer. And something unlocked.”
Before we leave, he tells us his life has come full circle on this film. When we ask about his favourite memory from the making of Project Hail Mary, the scale of it all quietly slips away. He talks about his son visiting the set in London. The moment he remembers is a small one. His son, who had grown up around space stories, born the year The Martian (2015) released, walked onto the set, looked around, pointed at a window and said, that’s the cupola. “It’s part of the International Space Station,” Sood recalls him saying, “That’s when I felt like, okay, we’ve done our job.”
Fenil's Bollywood Talk # 928
11:00 PM
DHURANDHAR THE REVENGE CONTINUES TO RULE, PROJECT HAIL MARY ALSO SCORES
Dhurandhar The Revenge is unstoppable at the box office in the second week as well, though it had its first noticeable drop on its second Monday. After collecting Rs. 44 crores last Thursday, its first week total came to Rs. 576 crores. On the second Friday, it earned Rs. 37 crores. As expected, the film saw a jump on Saturday, collecting Rs. 55 crores.
However, on its second Sunday, Dhurandhar The Revenge didn’t jump much as it earned Rs. 57 crores. This was expected by trade as ultimately, it's an ‘A’ rated film and that push from the families will not be applied here.
On Monday, the film dropped to Rs. 22 crores. There was a jump on Tuesday due to Mahavir Jayanti, when the film earned Rs. 24 crores. The film then again dropped and accumulated Rs. 17.50 crores on Wednesday.
Until now, Dhurandhar The Revenge has collected Rs. 788.50 crores. Thus, on April 1, it crossed the earnings of Dhurandhar’s first part and became the highest grosser of Hindi cinema. Meanwhile, on April 2, it became the first film to cross the Rs. 800 crore mark.
Bhooth Bangla has been pushed to April 17. So, it has two more weeks to earn without any competition. At this rate, Dhurandhar The Revenge should cross the Rs. 1000 crore mark.
On the other hand, Project Hail Mary, which was released on March 26, had to face a tough time as it struggled to get IMAX screens from Dhurandhar The Revenge. Despite the limitations, it managed to score on the first day, collecting around Rs. 2.60 crores. The collections jumped to Rs. 3 crore plus on Friday and Rs. 5 crore plus on Saturday and Sunday. The film is yet to fall below the first day collections in the weekdays, which is a rarity. The trend is extraordinary and there’s a huge demand to check out the film in IMAX and other premium formats.
The first week collections are expected to be around Rs. 27-28 crores. The second week’s shows are already fast-filling. Hence, the collections can go beyond Rs. 50 crores.
This week, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will be out. The last film, The Super Mario Bros Movie, had collected Rs. 1.50 crores on its first day, which was a surprise. The sequel can also perform beyond expectations, looking at the ticket sales.
Dhurandhar The Revenge is unstoppable at the box office in the second week as well, though it had its first noticeable drop on its second Monday. After collecting Rs. 44 crores last Thursday, its first week total came to Rs. 576 crores. On the second Friday, it earned Rs. 37 crores. As expected, the film saw a jump on Saturday, collecting Rs. 55 crores.
However, on its second Sunday, Dhurandhar The Revenge didn’t jump much as it earned Rs. 57 crores. This was expected by trade as ultimately, it's an ‘A’ rated film and that push from the families will not be applied here.
On Monday, the film dropped to Rs. 22 crores. There was a jump on Tuesday due to Mahavir Jayanti, when the film earned Rs. 24 crores. The film then again dropped and accumulated Rs. 17.50 crores on Wednesday.
Until now, Dhurandhar The Revenge has collected Rs. 788.50 crores. Thus, on April 1, it crossed the earnings of Dhurandhar’s first part and became the highest grosser of Hindi cinema. Meanwhile, on April 2, it became the first film to cross the Rs. 800 crore mark.
Bhooth Bangla has been pushed to April 17. So, it has two more weeks to earn without any competition. At this rate, Dhurandhar The Revenge should cross the Rs. 1000 crore mark.
On the other hand, Project Hail Mary, which was released on March 26, had to face a tough time as it struggled to get IMAX screens from Dhurandhar The Revenge. Despite the limitations, it managed to score on the first day, collecting around Rs. 2.60 crores. The collections jumped to Rs. 3 crore plus on Friday and Rs. 5 crore plus on Saturday and Sunday. The film is yet to fall below the first day collections in the weekdays, which is a rarity. The trend is extraordinary and there’s a huge demand to check out the film in IMAX and other premium formats.
The first week collections are expected to be around Rs. 27-28 crores. The second week’s shows are already fast-filling. Hence, the collections can go beyond Rs. 50 crores.
This week, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will be out. The last film, The Super Mario Bros Movie, had collected Rs. 1.50 crores on its first day, which was a surprise. The sequel can also perform beyond expectations, looking at the ticket sales.
(Crisp) Movie Review: PROJECT HAIL MARY by FENIL SETA
3:14 PM
Project Hail Mary tells an imaginative story in an entertaining and well-researched manner. This is not another space film. The storytelling, execution, cinematography etc. are novel and even the usage of VFX is unconventional. However, what impresses the most is the bond shared by the protagonist and the alien. The film also scores on the humour and emotional front. On the flipside, the film gets too technical and confusing in some places. Also, despite the best efforts, the goings-on give a déjà vu of ET, Koi Mil Gaya, Gravity, The Martian etc. Ryan Gosling is the only actor in most parts of the film and he delivers a fantastic performance; surely one of his best acts. Sandra Hüller (Eva Stratt) lends able support. Lionel Boyce (Officer Carl), Ken Leung (Yáo Li-Jie) and Milana Vayntrub (Olesya Ilyukhina) are okay. James Ortiz and Priya Kansara deserve special mention for voicing Rocky and Mary (the computer system in the Hail Mary ship). All in all, Project Hail Mary is worth watching ONLY in cinemas, preferably IMAX.
My rating - *** ½ out of 5!
My rating - *** ½ out of 5!
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