Will Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom be a money-spinner in India and rule box office like its predecessors?

Hollywood has been on a roll this year with mega offerings, ranging from Avengers: Infinity War to Solo: A Star Wars Story, Black Panther, Rampage, and the list goes on. All these films enjoyed a good run at the Indian box office.

India has become an important market for Hollywood, so much so that its new offering Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is releasing in India two weeks prior than US opening which will see the movie hitting its theatres on June 22.

While most of the English films are getting a warm welcome from Indian audiences, the situation wasn’t the same a few years back. But Hollywood movies did see a turnaround in India.

In fact, it was Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park that changed the scenario significantly. In the 90s before the release of Jurassic Park, it was believed that Hollywood appealed to a very niche movie-going audience in India. But 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.

And it looks like these are some of the reasons why the makers of the fifth instalment of the Jurassic film series are betting big on India.

But one factor that tops the list is the success of the predecessors of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. The Jurassic Park franchise has delivered as many as five films over the years and all these films have tasted success in India.

The 2015 release Jurassic World starring Chris Pratt and Indian actor Irrfan Khan minted Rs 150 crore at the Indian box office. The film had released in 2,108 screens in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

But it was the first instalment in the Jurassic Park series that had changed the game for Hollywood films and introduced Indian audiences to computer-generated films.

The big budget film on Dinosaurs had released in April of 1994, 10 months after its original release date unlike the present times where India is witnessing the release even before US. But the delay was because Jurassic Park was the first Hollywood film to be dubbed in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, a feat that contributed in no small measure to its remarkable 25-week run and Rs 19 crore box office takings.

Since then films loaded with special effects have routinely dubbed into Indian languages and screened with subtitles in cinemas and on television.

While the Jurassic Park series has grown huge, it would be interesting to see whether Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom would be able to match up to the success of its forerunners. Because this time the franchise faces competition from south superstar Rajinikanth whose film Kaala released on June 7.