Is Hollywood on course to grow its earnings in India in 2018 or will it remain stagnant like 2017?

While Hollywood flicks like Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther are changing the game at the Indian box office, the industry expects this segment to receive a bigger share in the country’s theatrical box office collections in 2018.

According to a report by EY, box office collections of Hollywood movies (inclusive of all the Indian language dubbed versions) in India remained stagnant in 2017. Out of the total revenue that films collected in the country last year which was recorded at Rs 9,630 crore, Hollywood movies clocked Rs 801 crore. This comprises around 13 percent of the total theatrical box office.

However, after three consecutive years of healthy growth since 2013,  Hollywood cinegoers remained stagnant at 75 million last year, marginally down from 78 million in 2016.

But it looks like Hollywood has come back to the Indian market in 2018 with a bang and this time again it is banking on its hit formula of bringing stories about superheroes battling supervillains in a fantasy world.

The 19th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Avengers: Infinity War, not only dominated the Indian box office as soon as it hit the theatres but it also took away the title of highest grossing film in India from the 2016 release The Jungle Book.

Black Panther was another Hollywood marvel that became an industry story after it collected Rs 71.52 crore in India alone. And Hollywood has more such films to offer with Deadpool 2 already playing in cinemas now. Films like Ant-Man and the wasp, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will all release this year.

Other Hollywood films like Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage and Emily Blunt-starring A Quiet Place from the fantasy genre also performed well in India.

In the 90s before the release of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, it was believed that Hollywood appealed to a very niche movie-going audience in India but that scenario changed significantly after the film’s release. Since then a lot of factors like multiplexes in smaller towns, films dubbed in local languages have helped Hollywood films to increase their foothold in the Indian market.

Although the business of Hollywood films remained stagnant last year but in 2015 and in 2016 their performance witnessed a robust growth at the Indian box office.

In 2016, gross collections grew by around 10 percent compared to 2015. The leading five Hollywood movies generated more than Rs 500 crore cumulatively in gross collections as in 2015. The Jungle Book became the highest grossing Hollywood movie in India by collecting Rs 250 crore. While one movie was able to collect more than Rs 100 crore in 2016, three could do the same in 2015.

A number of Hollywood films are scheduled to hit Indian screens in 2018. Solo: A Star Wars Story will release on May 25, Ocean’s Eight on June 8 along with Jurassic World 2 and Mission Impossible 6: Fallout on July 27.