India Box Office Hits Record $1.47BN In 2023 But Admissions Remain Below Pre-Pandemic Levels

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Four Chinese films dominated the global box office charts over the weekend, with combined takings of $350 million earned over just two days. And, as North America watched the Super Bowl instead, the weekend’s top Hollywood title, “Argylle” earned just $15.9 million worldwide. Chinese titles eschewed their usual Friday release pattern and opened on Saturday, the first official day of the Lunar New Year holiday period in China and much of Asia. Female-directed comedy drama “YOLO,” earned $113 million (RMB802 million), according to data from consultancy Artisan Gateway. That was narrowly ahead of car-racing comedy “Pegasus 2,” which earned RMB758 million or $107 million and was the bigger title on Saturday.

The Taste Of Things, a meditation on turn-of-the-century French cooking — no chicken wings or nachos in sight — is stirring up a nice weekend for IFC Films with $126k and the best per-theater opening of the year so far on Super Bowl weekend.

“Lisa Frankenstein” didn’t come to life at the North American box office in its first weekend in theaters.The horror comedy written by Diablo Cody and starring Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse earned $3.8 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.It debuted in second place on a very slow Super Bowl weekend, behind the spy thriller “Argylle.”Matthew Vaugn’s “Argylle” got first place with only $6.5 million, which brings its running domestic total to $28.8 million in two weekends. The $200 million production is Apple’s first major theatrical flop.Universal Pictures oversaw the North American release for the streamer, where it is playing in 3,605 locations.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Matthew Vaughn’s spy thriller “Argylle” emerged victorious over newcomer “Lisa Frankenstein” in a moribund box office with both films struggling to show signs of life. “Argylle” claimed the No. 1 spot again with $6.5 million from 3,605 North American venues, marking a steep 62% decline from its disappointing debut.

Super Bowl weekend, despite its damper on Sunday business, was frame that could still yield results, even for films aimed at dudes, i.e. 2015 when the 6th weekend of American Sniper drummed up $30.7M, or 2020 when the third weekend of Bad Boys for Life did $17.6M.

Antiques Roadshow saw a particularly special and rare item break records during one episode, with an incredible valuation shocking the entire crowd of onlookers. An elderly couple arrived at the roadshow with an unusual and cultural design piece in the form of an Imperial robe from China.

Selome Hailu In a report analyzing TV viewership in the U.S. throughout 2023, Nielsen found that “Suits” beat a record previously held by “The Office” for number of minutes watched in a single year. The USA network legal drama racked up 57.7 billion total minutes watched in 2023, putting it just ahead of the 57.1 billion minutes of viewership accumulated by “The Office” in 2020.

Naman Ramachandran Viacom18 and Marflix’s Bollywood actioner “Fighter” was the highest grossing film of the weekend at the global box office, with box office revenues of $25.1 million, according to data from ComScore. The film, directed by Siddharth Anand, whose previous film, Shah Rukh Khan starrer “Pathaan,” was one of the biggest Indian hits of 2023, stars Bollywood A-listers Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor. “Fighter” revolves around the Indian Air Force and released on Thursday, Jan.

led by “ The Beekeeper ” in its third week of release.Amazon MGM Studios’ Jason Statham actioner earned $7.4 million to take the No. 1 spot, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Toho International’s Godzilla Minus One – with an Oscar nom and a $2.6 million estimated three-day gross – was no. 10 at the U.S. box office in week 9, and hit a milestone Friday. The giant radioactive reptile, on 2,001 screens, became the third highest-grossing foreign-language film Stateside passing Hero (2002, $53.7m) and Parasite (2019, $53.4m).

Refresh for latest…:We’re still in a holdover pattern for Hollywood at the global and international box office, though milestones continue to be reached on an offshore and worldwide basis for existing releases. Meanwhile, Anyone But You saw an uptick overseas and drops were good for others (including newly-minted Oscar nominees). One new local entry, India’s Fighter, flew to the top of the global weekend chart. 

J. Kim Murphy With no new wide releases this weekend, theater traffic is reaching a near halt to mark the end of January. “Mean Girls” looks to lead domestic charts once again, while the crop of freshly Oscar-nominated features look to extend their big screen runs armed with renewed new awards buzz.

Sony Group Corporation has initiated a Singapore arbitration case against Indian TV giant Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL), alleging breaches of their failed merger agreement, Variety has confirmed. The $10 billion merger, which would have seen the two entities merge their TV and streaming businesses in India, was terminated on Monday by Sony after a two-year process. Sony is seeking a $90 million termination fee from ZEEL.

Sony has terminated plans for its long-in-the-works merger of its television and streaming operations in India with local giant Zee Entertainment Enterprises, saying that closing conditions were not satisfied.

So, here we are in mid-January, and though we’re staring down the barrel of a tough year ahead, it’s not all wintry doom and gloom on an international box office (and combined global) level. 

Naman Ramachandran Despite a resurgent 2023 for Bollywood both at home and overseas, the industry’s international box office performance is likely to be weaker in 2024, a leading U.K. distributor has said. London-based Pranab Kapadia, a seasoned Bollywood media executive with stints at studios Eros and Zee, now runs U.K.

The upcoming Gandhi streaming series has gone into production in Gujarat, India.

With its streaming operations facing scrutiny as 2024 gets under way, Paramount Global continues to pursue a diversified approach to distributing its flagship, Paramount+.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and The India Center Foundation, two non-profit organizations working with South Asian film in the U.S., have agreed to merge. Already long-time collaborators, IFFLA and ICF will, among other things, work closely to incubate and launch an industry development program to showcase the next generation of South Asian talent to studios, funders and media executives. “We saw an opportunity to scale our work nationally as one of the leading supporters of emerging creative talent in the diaspora.

EXCLUSIVE: Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki has achieved his best global box office in a decade with Cannes Jury Prize winner Fallen Leaves which has racked up a total gross of $12.4M, according to figures released by its producers.