Niche American films find success with premium pricing in Indian market
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Niche American dramas and small-scale Hollywood films such as Tom Hanks-starrer Here and Michael Keaton’s comedy Goodrich have seen reasonable box-office success in India, buoyed by premium pricing, despite the noise around steep ticket prices deterring footfalls at theatres.
Releasing in select theatres in metros and urban markets, cinema owners say the clientele for such films are limited and do not mind paying upwards of ₹500, even though these aren’t really spectacular movies with extraordinary visual effects. This strategy remains the only way to make the release of such movies with elevated content quality viable in India.
“The idea is that exhibitors are aware of the clientele they are targeting and that these people are willing and able to pay such prices, so that the theatre owners can maximize value since the volume is going to be low," Rahul Puri, managing director, Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas, said. This strategy is usually adopted for critically-acclaimed films nominated for the Academy Awards or those that have toured the festival circuit, he said.
Over the past few months, small-scale American films such as Here, Michael Keaton’s comedy Goodrich and romantic comedy Fly Me To The Moon have respectively made ₹35 lakh, ₹10 lakh and ₹25 lakh in box-office collections in India. While they cannot be compared to the ₹100-crore-plus earnings of high-budget, action or superhero Hollywood films, trade experts say the high ticket pricing helps these titles find appeal among their target audience.
Released in limited screens in markets of south Mumbai and south Delhi, the American studios backing them also don’t wish to spend much on marketing to create hype. “Even in the West,
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