The desi blockbuster movie Bahubali 2 has been sweeping all records for earnings the past few weeks. Not surprisingly (for desis), the movie also beat records in North America this past week.
The Wall Street Journal took note, highlighting
It’s being called India’s “Star Wars,” smashing box-office records worldwide. The wild superhero epic “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion,” which opened at the end of April, has become the highest grossing Indian film in history, and its breakthrough in the U.S. may be just as significant.
With a $10.3 million opening weekend April 28, it was the No. 3 film in America, beating DreamWorks Animation’s “Boss Baby,” Tom Hanks in “The Circle” and other Hollywood fare. It did so even though it opened on only 425 screens around the country, selected for their demographics, averaging $24,364 per screen. The No. 1 film the same weekend, “The Fate of The Furious,” averaged only $4,890 per screen, on 4,077 screens.
“We were stunned. This clearly turned into an event,” said Greg Foster, CEO of IMAX. “When you have full houses on Thursday night, on something that was unbelievably viral in how the information was disseminated to the Indian diaspora, you’re tapping into something.”
WSJ writer was also surprised how the movie took off without support from mainstream movie critics “Critics on Yahoo or Rotten Tomatoes, or somewhere. I haven’t seen anything like that,” he said. On Rotten Tomatoes recently “Baahubali 2” boasted a 92% audience score and had no rating at all from critics. Imports like this still take a back seat to Hollywood blockbusters.
Other Articles and news:
- ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ box-office collection Day 12: Film’s Hindi version becomes highest second week grosser – TOI
- Overseas Box Office Collection: ‘Baahubali’ (Bahubali) Beats Salman’s ‘Kick’ Record in 31 Days – International Business Times
- Baahubali box office collections hit $20 mn mark, reach top 10 at International B.O. – S. S. Rajamouli’s epic film ‘Bahubali’ box office collections have reached international box office top 10 list with an opening of $20 million.
- Bahubali 2: The Conclusion touches $100 million mark; now how much higher can it go? – Firstpost
blog.garamchai.com 