Bangalore, July 11: Harry Potter is ready to begin his sixth year at Hogwarts school of magic. The ‘prophecy’ prompts Dumbledore to give private lessons to the budding wizard, who finds himself excelling in Potions classes beating Ronald Weasly and the ever- so-studious Hermione Granger, thanks to the book of the Half Blood Prince.
Long after J.K. Rowling wound up her seven-book series, Potter fans can relive memories of the sixth book in movie halls next week. And the timing for this release in India couldn’t have been better.
Hollywood flicks have had a warm reception in India this year. “Angels and Demons”, “Ice Age 3”, “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Terminator Salvation” are success stories. “Angels and Demons”, released with 133 prints across India in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, surprised with collections that crossed Rs. 19 million in its opening weekend. Hugh Jackman starrer “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” fared even better, collecting Rs. 75 million in its opening weekend, surging ahead of “Angels and demons”, “Indiana Jones”, “Fast and Furious 4” and other English releases this year. Movies like “Ice Age 3” and “Bolt” are keeping the kiddie crowd happy in multiplexes and single screens. In fact, “X-Men’s” collections are the largest ever for an English film in its opening weekend in India. And “Ice Age 3” collected Rs 2.2 crore in its first weekend, the best for any animation film in India, beating “Hanuman” and “Shrek 3”.
Kercy Daruwala, managing director, Sony Pictures India attributes the success of English films to, “The lack of good Hindi films so far and the increasing number of multiplexes that allow English films to share a larger pie of business.” Summer 2009 was characterised by a prolonged strike between multiplex owners and Bollywood producers, paving way for a number of English releases. “Kal Kissne Dekha” and “Paying Guests”, released soon after the strike, were BO duds. “New York” is touted to be the biggest hit so far. Daruwala does not discount the huge openings to “Kambhakkht Ishq” (KI) despite it being critically panned as ‘bad thrash’. “Until now, Hollywood films have managed to get only 4.49 per cent of the Indian market. This year we might see an improvement,” he adds.
“KI” collected Rs. 25 crore in its opening weekend and New York Rs. 17 crore. This is a huge sum compared to the response for English films, points out Suniel Wadhwa, vice president, motion pictures distribution, UTV. “English films will do well if they are released in India soon after their worldwide release. ‘Bolt’ was released in the US in November 2008 and people here had seen it on DVD. So the 2D release didn’t get a great response. The 3D release, however, kept crowds coming in,” he says. Remember how “Slumdog Millionaire was available on pirated DVDs much before it released in India?
The 3D releases hope to curb that piracy for Hollywood. “There are big films such as ‘Up’ and ’Surrogate’ (starring Bruce Willis) expected this year. ‘Surrogate’ will release worldwide and in India simultaneously,” adds Wadhwa.
If the Hollywood success story continues, we’ll see Harry Potter have the last laugh as he goes in search of Voldemort’s soul through horcruxes. For Potter fans, there’s also the new game based on the movie, compatible with PlayStation 2 and 3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360.
