Cinemas stage strong comeback with Spider-Man, Pushpa, but yet to reach pre-COVID levels

Family audience’s reluctance to return to theatres as the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads, and the switch by some filmgoers to streaming platforms keep footfalls low.

The theatrical release of Hollywood production Spider-Man No Way Home and the Telugu-language Pushpa: The Rise have set the domestic box office ringing and cheered domestic movie exhibitors as 2021 draws to a close.

Pushpa, also dubbed in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi, has become the first film in COVID times to cross the Rs 100 crore mark on its first weekend, Spider-Man is standing tall after earnings Rs 79 crore in the first three days of its release, film trade analysts say.

Sony Pictures Entertainment India, which released Spider-Man No Way Home, said the film, which earned Rs 32.67 crore on day one in India, had become highest opening day grosser in Asia and the fifth highest in the world. The film earned 3.5 times its 2019 predecessor Spider-Man: Far From Home, the company said.

Online movie ticketing platform BookMyShow surpassed its contribution in terms of the sale of tickets for Spider-Man No Way Home compared to previous blockbusters like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

The platform sold over 3.5 million Spider-Man tickets on the first weekend and contributed more than 61 percent to the film's overall business.

"Spider-Man is on course to posting a lifetime collection of Rs 170- 200 crore in India. Regionally too, Pushpa has seen a strong performance and is estimated to collect net box office collections of Rs 200 crore in its lifetime, ahead of Vijay's Master, which had released in January this year and earned Rs 180 crore. Box-office revenues are largely at par with pre-pandemic levels for big-ticket films," he said.

South superstar Allu Arjun's Pushpa is also setting records at the ticket counters. Over 2.8 million tickets of Pushpa were sold by BookMyShow on the opening weekend, with the film hitting a peak of 31 tickets sold per second on December 16, a day before the film's release.

After Baahubali 2, Pushpa has become the second highest film in terms of tickets sold per second on the ticketing platform. The film has also marked the highest ever advance sales for an Allu Arjun film.