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The global buzz around Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Margot Robbie’s Barbie has caught on in India, too. The two Hollywood biggies are releasing at the Indian box office this Friday with not much competition from Bollywood. Multiplex chains are witnessing strong advance booking trends for this weekend led by Oppenheimer.
Gautam Dutta, Co-CEO, PVR Inox, said: “We are looking at a very big weekend. Already we have seen advance booking of about 1.20 lakh tickets across our cinemas for this weekend so far. We have about 1400 shows slotted for Oppenheimer and about 1100 shows slotted for Barbie.”
“Oppenheimer is witnessing exceptionally strong booking trends with tickets in IMAX and 4DX formats almost sold out. Advance bookings for Barbie are also going strong. Bulk ticket booking is happening not just in metros, but also in some Tier-2 markets as a lot of families and young women audience want to watch this film,” he added.
According to BookMyShow estimates, more than 3 lakh tickets of Oppenheimer have been bought on its platform since advance booking for this flick went live nearly three weeks ago. Ashish Saksena, COO, Cinemas, BookMyShow, said: “A whopping 42 per cent of tickets booked on BookMyShow for Oppenheimer have been for immersive cinematic formats, specifically the IMAX format.” He added that about 54,000 tickets of Barbie have been sold on the platform so far since the advance booking opened on July 15.
Even as the two movies clash at the box office this Friday, some movie buffs will be watching both. “On BookMyShow, we observed 8 per cent of transactors for Oppenheimer also having booked tickets for Barbie, with a large chunk opting to watch both films on the same day,” Saksena added.
Trade analysts though point out that the movies are expected to appeal more to urban consumers unlike superhero or action flicks that have mass appeal. Producer and film business expert Girish Johar said: “In terms of advance booking trends, Oppenheimer has taken the lead for now over Barbie unlike other markets such as the US. These are two different genres, scale and presentation. They are expected to draw more of multiplex audiences in urban regions.”
Line-up of flicks
Strong line-up of flicks has brought much respite for cinema chains as June quarter was muted in terms of box office collections. As per estimates released by Ormax Media, India gross box office revenues for January-June period stood at ₹4,868 crore, which is 15 per cent lower than the same period in 2022. Pathaan is the top grosser of the year so far with only one Hollywood movie Fast X featuring in the top ten flicks in the first six months of the year.
“July has been quite encouraging. With movies such as Satya Prem Ki Katha and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (MI 7) doing very well at the box office,“ added Dutta.
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