‘Tiger 3’ Is Getting India’s Imax Screens Instead of ‘The Marvels’ in a Push Away From Hollywood | Analysis

Indian tentpoles like “RRR,” “Jawan” and “Pathaan” routinely get Imax releases in India, but not at the expense of Hollywood blockbusters. But when action star Salman Khan’s “Tiger 3” opens the weekend of Nov. 12 it will do just that. That means that Hollywood’s mid-November juggernauts “The Marvels” (opening Nov. 10) and “The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snake” (opening Nov. 17) will not have those premium auditoriums.

Instead, all 23 Imax theaters in India will be taken by “Tiger 3,” a Hindi-language action thriller starring Khan, who plays an Indian spy fighting a group of terrorists to clear his name.

“Indian tentpoles have been outperforming a lot of Hollywood blockbusters,” Jatinder Singh, an Indian box office expert and journalist, told TheWrap.

The Maneesh Sharma-directed “Tiger 3,” set in the same “YRF Spy Universe” as “Pathaan” and the 2019 action hit “War,” is expected to continue a winning streak for Bollywood (Hindu-language) films.

Unlike many Western markets, locally produced movies are usually the top-earning films in India. “Avengers: Endgame,” which took in $62 million in India in 2019, is an exception to the rule. As Singh explained, India was one of the few territories where “Titanic” — which Hindustan Times writer Sanjukta Sharma called “the most Bollywood Hollywood movie ever made” — was not the top-grossing film of the year. The top earner for 1998, during which “Titanic” first set sail in India, was “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.”

A high-level distribution executive told TheWrap that “Tiger 3” had notched Imax engagements for what will be a Sunday opening day on the national holiday of Diwali. This means the Bollywood biggie would have had dibs even if — as originally intended — “Dune: Part Two” opened in early November.

The biggest movies get the biggest screens

Imax knows it can’t entirely rely on Hollywood blockbusters. A steady diet of local box-office successes means India’s market — which accounted for $1.3 billion in 2022 out of an international $18.4 billion total — won’t be dependent on whatever Hollywood offers up. It is not unlike the reason AMC snagged self-distribution rights for the Taylor Swift and Beyoncé Knowles concert films. After years of inconsistent Hollywood releases, no theatrical company can subsist on hoping there’s a “Top Gun: Maverick” or “Barbie”-sized tentpole or two every year.

Bollywood and Tollywood (Telugu-language) flicks have been bigger in India than most Hollywood blockbusters. “Pathaan” earned $82 million in India earlier this year while “Jawan” earned $95 million over the last six weeks. Conversely, the first “Captain Marvel” took in $15 million in India in 2019 while the “Hunger Games” films made little-to-no impact in their initial theatrical run. Even “War” earned $45 million in 2019. That’s not far off from the eventual $55 million haul for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021.

While no one expects “Tiger 3” to earn more money globally than the biggest Hollywood tentpoles, Indian biggies have begun earning big bucks outside of India. “Dangal” earned $193 million in China in 2017. The Oscar-winning “RRR” grossed even more Imax-specific revenue in Japan than in India.

Hyde Park Entertainment Group CEO Ashok Amritraj previously told TheWrap that the worldwide audience will grow as more consumers become accustomed to the Indian filmmaking style. He also credited global streaming platforms for getting such films in front of otherwise unaware moviegoers.

Indian holidays and big American release dates rarely coincide

This kind of showdown rarely comes up because the two respective genres generally don’t open alongside each other. Hollywood films aren’t necessarily scheduled in sync with Indian national holidays.

Nov. 11 is Veterans Day in the U.S. while Nov. 12 is Diwali. This means that we get a rare Hollywood (“The Marvels” on Nov. 10) vs. Bollywood/Tollywood (“Tiger 3” on Nov. 12) tentpole showdown in India.

“If anything, Hollywood would try not to open their tentpole against a potential Indian blockbuster,” Amritraj stated.

As The Times of India explained, Nov. 13 is Amavasya, a holiday considered unfavorable for moviegoing. Think Christmas Eve in North America. However, Nov. 14 is Govardhan Pookja and the Gujarati New Year while Nov. 15 is another festival, Bhai Dooj.

So the hope is that Sunday is a massive, fan-driven opening day followed by an expected day-two drop and then a recovery over the next few days of the holiday-inflated box office. The timing is similar to when a major title opens in North America on the Wednesday before a holiday. It opens big on Wednesday, drops on Thursday and then roars back to life on the proper Fri-Sun weekend.

“RRR” opened in late March of 2022 — weeks after “The Batman” and a month before the start of the summer movie season — and “Pathaan” debuted in late January of 2023. These dates, along with the late-August 2019 debut of “Saaho,” were not exactly prime Hollywood tentpole slots — at least not compared to American holiday weekends like Memorial Day or Thanksgiving. Amritraj also explained that Indian cinema was less inclined to open their own big films amid a sweltering summer movie season.

Sending a political message?

A huge Indian movie displacing an MCU movie paints a picture of isolationist strength even if it’s just smart business. Asian Studies Professor Deepak Sarma, Distinguished Scholar in the Public Humanities, Case Western Reserve University, told TheWrap that releasing “Tiger 3” on Diwali, India’s biggest Hindu national holiday, is no coincidence.

“India sees itself as a power independent of the West,” Deepak said. “The Hollywood movie is being displaced by the Indian film, which cannot help but send a message.”

In his view, it’s less about politics and more about math. As far as Bollywood displacing Hollywood, the biggest film gets the biggest screens. As such, at least in India, giving “Tiger 3” the Imax treatment is a no-brainer.

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