Hollywood's record India run is rewriting multiplex economics

Hollywood is delivering one of its biggest years ever at the Indian box office. For the country's multiplex operators, the numbers are translating directly into stronger occupancy, higher premium-ticket sales, and more repeat visits.

Big-ticket releases from Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey to Marvel's Spider-Man: Brand New Day are not just breaking records—they are reshaping premium-format demand and multiplex economics, strengthening India's role as a key global market for studios. While superhero franchises still dominate, exhibitors and trade analysts say audiences are increasingly rewarding original stories and genre films too, giving cinema chains a more dependable release calendar.

According to box office tracking platform Sacnilk, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has collected ₹351.27 crore net and ₹420.02 crore gross in India after 10 days, making it the country's biggest Hollywood opener. The Odyssey has earned ₹158.75 crore net and ₹189.21 crore gross after 21 days, becoming Nolan's highest-grossing film in the country. The momentum comes as India cements its position among the world's most important markets for Hollywood tentpole releases.

Premium screens become the biggest growth engine

For exhibitors, the story is as much about the format as the film—and premium large formats are where the margins increasingly sit.

"I don't think the conversation today is about Hollywood versus Indian cinema. It's about which films give audiences a compelling reason to step into theatres," says Kamal Gianchandani, chief strategy officer at PVR INOX.

"The Odyssey has witnessed exceptional demand across IMAX and other premium large formats, highlighting audiences' preference to experience visually ambitious films on the biggest screens. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has also generated strong repeat viewership among Marvel fans, families and younger audiences."

The pull-through is visible on the ground. According to distributor figures, PVR INOX—India's largest chain—grossed over ₹135 crore across the opening weekend of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, drawing close to 3 million moviegoers at roughly 60% average occupancy, the kind of throughput that lifts both ticket yields and high-margin food-and-beverage sales.

The premium tilt shows up in the concentration of that revenue. Ashish Misra, head of commercialisation at Cinépolis India, notes that The Odyssey crossed Oppenheimer's lifetime India total in 13 days.

"A little over a third of its India business came from just 34 IMAX screens," he says. "Our audience knew this film was built for the big screen, so they chose the biggest screen available and were happy to pay for the experience."

That concentration of revenue on a handful of high-yield screens is what makes Hollywood tentpoles attractive to multiplex chains. Misra adds that Spider-Man: Brand New Day recorded the biggest opening weekend for any Hollywood film in India, surpassing Avengers: Endgame's benchmark.

A broader, more diverse market

Beyond franchise blockbusters, the market is widening—and that diversification gives exhibitors more options through the year, smoothing the gaps between big superhero releases.

"Indian moviegoers are now more open to embracing original and standalone titles, if the content is worth paying for," a Sacnilk spokesperson said. Films such as the Formula One drama F1, Project Hail Mary, Oppenheimer and The Odyssey have all performed strongly outside the superhero mould.

Sacnilk's numbers bear this out. Project Hail Mary has collected ₹59 crore net and ₹70.61 crore gross after 21 days, while Obsession has earned ₹36.10 crore net and ₹43.15 crore gross after 10 days. Earlier, Oppenheimer had collected ₹131.73 crore net in India as part of a ₹7,925 crore worldwide gross, while Barbie earned ₹46.43 crore net, contributing to its ₹12,000 crore worldwide haul—underscoring India's growing weight in global releases.

Horror has become another reliable category. Titles including The Conjuring: Last Rites, Final Destination: Bloodlines and the Evil Dead films have enjoyed healthy runs, giving exhibitors a consistent, lower-cost option beyond action spectacles.

India's rising weight for studios

The growing box office has pushed Hollywood studios to step up investment through marketing campaigns, dubbed releases and local partnerships.

"The Indian audiences are watching a lot more Hollywood content. It is not only the franchise films they are watching. They are looking at compelling stories," says producer and film business analyst Girish Johar, who credits India's large Gen Z base for the shift. "Earlier, audiences had shifted towards event watching after COVID. Now I can see habitual movie watching returning, which is a very healthy sign for cinema."

Johar also points to India's rising contribution to Hollywood revenues. "Earlier, we were doing around 2% of Hollywood's international business. Today we are hovering around the 15-20% mark. That clearly shows the rise of Hollywood films in India," he says.

Trade analyst Komal Nahta says the trend has been building for years, with many young Indians preferring Hollywood fare over Bollywood because they find it less contrived. "Hollywood studios have realised this market has potential to grow more and therefore needs to be catered to. Hence such fancy marketing campaigns," he says.

Producer Tanuj Garg echoes that view. "Hollywood franchises and tentpole films have usually fared very well in India. The market has always been a potent one and I don't see that changing," he says.

But the base is still narrow

For all the record-setting, Hollywood remains a small chunk of India's theatrical business, which is still driven overwhelmingly by Hindi and regional cinema and their far larger footfalls. The momentum also rests on a thin slate of event titles: when the tentpole calendar goes quiet, the premium screens that power these numbers can sit under-utilised. Those screens remain scarce—the roughly three dozen IMAX auditoriums that delivered a third of The Odyssey's haul are a fraction of India's total—and their higher ticket prices cap reach in the price-sensitive Tier II and Tier III markets that studios are now chasing through dubbed releases.

Even so, the structural direction is up. With Avengers: Doomsday, Dune: Part 3, Resident Evil and The Hunger Games joining a strong Hindi and regional slate, exhibitors expect Hollywood to become an even bigger contributor to India's theatrical business—without displacing domestic cinema. The message from exhibitors and analysts is clear: audiences are increasingly experience-led, and willing to pay for spectacle.