Fast and Furious 7 to be first Rs 100-cr Hollywood film in India

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Fast and Furious 7 is racing towards becoming the most successful Hollywood film to be released in India. The film, the seventh in the Fast and Furious franchise, has net-collected Rs 77 crore within eight days of being released, almost equalling Avatar's (2009) lifetime collection of Rs 78 crore.

Suniel Wadhwa, independent distributor and box office analyst, says: "Furious 7 took the franchise to the next level in the first week, with a stunning Rs 69 crore of net box office, setting the all-time record for the biggest grosser for the opening week. Even if that falls quickly, it is guaranteed to cross the all-time biggest grosser, Avatar."

Fast and Furious 7, starring the late Paul Walker, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Vin Diesel, was released on April 2, a day before Dibakar Bannerjee's Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!, in as many as 2,800 screens. In its first week, it crossed the Rs 100-crore (before-tax) mark, a record.

"We were not competing with Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! or any other film. Both films have their own niche and our strategy for distribution was independent of the release of other films. We wanted to reach markets in tier-II and tier-III territories, where a film such as Fast and Furious would usually not be released and where, therefore, people would resort to watching a pirated copy," says Sarabjit Singh, head, NBC Universal India, the company responsible for distributing the film in India.

He adds since the goal was to make the film accessible to as many people as possible, it was released in multiplexes and single screens. For the film, multiplex screens dominated in metros, while in non-metro areas, the number of single screens was higher. After the release, too, the company has added a few screens, though the count remains under 3,000.

The fact that there haven't been many appealing films in theatres through the past two weeks has helped the film. After the success of Badlapur, NH 10 and Dum Lagake Haisha, there was a lull in theatres in terms of content. This, coupled with the fact that Fast and Furious 7 is Paul Walker's last film, gave the film the perfect launch in the Indian market. The long Easter weekend was the icing on the cake.

Having almost levelled the current top-grossing Hollywood film in India, it is sure to climb to the top of the charts. However, no major Bollywood films are scheduled to be released this month (the next biggie is Akshay Kumar's Gabbar on May 1) and Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron releases on April 24. The film has two clear weeks in which Fast and Furious 7 could widen the margin between it and Avatar. Singh is optimistic the film will be the first from the Hollywood stable to exceed the Rs 100-crore net revenue mark by the end of three weeks.

Wadhwa agrees. "With strong reviews and almost negligible competition for the next two weeks, it's a foregone conclusion that Furious 7 won't have any obstacles to net-earn more than Rs 100 crore at the box office by the third weekend, becoming the first Hollywood film to surpass the mark in India."

All eyes will then shift to the second instalment of the Avengers franchise, part of Disney's Marcvel Cinematic Universe.

The first in the series, released in 2012, net-earned Rs 52 crore at the box office.