International films may add ₹2,500 crore to Indian box office in 2026

Hollywood’s share in the Indian box office peaked when Marvel films did well here before Covid. After 2019, there wasn’t any blockbuster from Marvel. But with the new ‘Spiderman’ and ‘Avengers’, that revival is here,” Kapoor added

MUMBAI: It will probably end up being a blockbuster calendar year for the international films in India, riding on both Hollywood and Japanese movie releases. Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, executive director, PVR INOX Ltd, is upbeat about the performance of the international titles, given that Hollywood films such as ‘Spiderman: Brand New Day’ that made ₹609 crore, ‘The Odyssey’ ₹ 233 crore and even ‘Obsession’ – with no known faces -- stood out and made ₹ 100 crore. Bijli is equally pleased with the response to the Japanese anime ‘Doraemon the Movie’ which his company picked and distributed and which ended up doing business worth ₹24 crore.

International films may add ₹2,500 crore to Indian box office in 2026

But the year isn’t over and his sights are trained on November and December that will see at least a couple of potential blockbusters: The Japanese ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ and ‘Avengers: Doomsday.’ “‘Godzilla’ is already a super hit in the US. We could not release it in India earlier as it was clashing with ‘Ramayana,’ Bijli said. While trade analysts expect ‘Godzilla’ to touch $100 million mark in global business soon, Bijli is also optimistic about ‘I Play Rocky’ which PVR INOX Pictures is distributing.

“At PVR, the contribution of international films to its topline was 13% last year. We are already tracking 18% this year and there is still some juice left up until December which could make Hollywood numbers bigger and better,” said Bijli.

This number could swell to touch or cross ₹2,500 crore if ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ outperforms ‘Spiderman’, Kapoor said. According to estimates, ‘Avengers,’ releasing in December, is expected to do ₹700-750 crore business in India, he said. Other films being released between November and December are ‘Juman ji 3’ and ‘Dune: Part three.’

“Hollywood’s share in the Indian box office peaked when Marvel films did well here before Covid. After 2019, there wasn’t any blockbuster from Marvel. But with the new ‘Spiderman’ and ‘Avengers’, that revival is here,” Kapoor added.

PVR INOX Pictures, the distribution arm of the exhibition chain, picks 40-50 titles from independent studios like Lionsgate, Black Bear, A24, Film Nation and TV Asahi etc every year from genres like horror, action, romantic comedies, dramas and anime. Audience tastes have evolved owing to their exposure to content available on streaming platforms.

“It has definitely opened up the market theatrically. The impact has been positive as people exposed to different genres are coming to theatres to watch films in various languages. One beneficiary is Japanese anime,” he said, impressed with the response to ‘Doraemon the Movie.’ Bijli is also hopeful that their other picks like ‘I Play Rocky’ (story of Sylvester Stallone’s fight to bring Rocky to the screen), a topical film on AI called ‘Artificial’ and ‘The Hunger Games’ – releasing in the next few weeks -- will work well in India.

International film market in India is significant, Kapoor said, explaining that there’s a core Hollywood audience and there’s a mass audience. “The core audience will watch the Marvel films as well as films like ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ and ‘Obsession.’ The mass audiences are not deep into Hollywood but they watch the dubbed Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions of Marvel franchises in theatres bringing in nearly 50% of the total business. Their footfall volumes are high and ticket prices are lower. The remaining 50% business of these films comes from English where ticket prices are high,” Kapoor said.

Dubbing works well in science-fiction and superhero films but not so much when emotions are involved. “So, the other kind of films have an upper limit of ₹100 crore business in India,” Kapoor said, adding that ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ did ₹60 crore, while ‘Michael’ clocked ₹80 crore.

Referring to overall theatrical business, Bijli said that audiences are making a comeback and the only challenge going forward is a good pipeline of content. Ormax’s Kapoor agreed: “Since we have no control over content coming from Hollywood, we can hope that the Indian pipeline remains strong.”

Consumer habits have changed, people do not go to theatres for smaller Hindi films, he said, so a regular supply of bigger films is much needed. “Despite multiple releases, of the 52 weeks, 30-35 weeks are not running on strong content,” Kapoor said. For revival of theatrical business, adding more screens isn’t the answer, consistency of content is, he said.

People have become selective about what they watch in theatres and that is the impact of OTT, Kapoor added. Secondly, filmmakers must also pay attention to the biggest consumer cohort, that is, the Gen Z. “They go out and spend. But there isn’t much content for them in Hindi like ‘Obsession’ was. The last big film for them was ‘Saiyaara’. But all said and done, this is going to be the best India Box Office year in many years. Especially for international films,” Kapoor said.