I’m back! After skipping the past few weeks, meaning I am coming in just as Simmba turns into a failure instead of a hit. (as always, figures from bollywoodhungama)

I hate feeling like I missed a bit of the story when I skip box office weeks. Oh well, there’s nothing for it, I just have to live with it. So I am coming in right at the end of the Simmba domination, just in time to see how it is holding up in week 3. $1,400 per screen on 136 screens in America. Which is not great, ideally in week 3 it would still be taking in $2,000 per screen. But then, it is also still on 136 screens, which is a bit high, it might be more of a factor of over-saturation than lack of interest.

It’s doing a little better in Canada, about $4,000 per screen, but then Canadian ticket prices are higher so films always do better there. UK is about the same as the US, which is good, since the UK has lower ticket prices. About $3,000 per screen in Australia, not great since Australia tends to match more with Canada, but not terrible for a week 3. Overall, I think we can call this a global hit! That’s exciting, to have all the major markets more or less agree on enjoying a film. And a sign that the markets in India probably match, this isn’t a Punjabi hit or a Bombay hit, but an All (north) India hit.

So, that’s the north India/Hindi belt, what’s going on in the south? Let’s talk Petta!!!!! Rajinikanth’s last couple of movies have been critically acclaimed but haven’t been real box office tornadoes. Petta is kind of in between. Only $4,000 per screen in America, and that’s with the inflated opening weekend tickets. But also on 250 screens!!!! Which is a massive number for a non-Hindi film, that’s like Bahubali numbers. To maintain $4,000 per screen on that many screens is a real accomplishment. Especially considering, with that many, at least some of them are probably at regular theaters that refused to inflate tickets.

That’s in America, but the real story is in the newer markets. In the UK, Petta managed 66 screens and $3,335 per screen, very impressive. And in Australia, 34 screens and $12,000 per screen!!!! These are better numbers than the major Hindi films are getting. So either the overall existing audience in those countries is getting more interested in Tamil. Or the non-Tamil audience is dropping away while the Tamil audience is remaining steady. Or the Tamil population is growing in those countries at such a rate that it is affecting box office. Probably a combination, the Hindi speaking diaspora has been dropping films for years, while the southern language communities have a different kind of tie to their language industries. Plus after Bahubali there is more of a crossover interest and willingness, not to mention that we are now into the 2nd-3rd generation who are more about reading subtitles and less about what language the film is in. And the diaspora continues to grow all over the world, making the non-Hindi community bigger and bigger.

And then there’s Uri. Released on only 81 screens in America, which isn’t huge, but is respectable for a no-star film. I haven’t, and won’t, be seeing it, but from what I have heard it is a generally well-made high quality action film of the realistic and serious kind rather than the silly and over the top kind. And, of course, it has that patriotic angle going for it which sells like crazy nowadays. And it made about $5,000 per screen. Which is very high for this kind of film. I’ll be curious to see how the numbers hold up, with this kind of movie it is usually either a matter of everyone feeling like they “should” see it because it is based on a “real story” and turning out opening weekend and then not coming back; or it is legitimately high quality and gets good word of mouth and the box office remains steady.

Uri didn’t do as well in other markets too, $6,000 per screen in Canada, $1,700 per screen in the UK, $5,000 in Australia. Not a flop, but just sort of average to low for an action movie. Petta beat it by a mile in Australia and the UK, and $6,000 for an action movie opening weekend in Canada really isn’t that impressive.

This is similar to what the Padmavat and other patriotic violence movies show in their box office, America is where the market really needs that patriotism to get them to turn out. It’s not so much that patriotism doesn’t work in other places, more that other things work as well. The American box office for Indian films has been dropping so rapidly that now the only films which make even close to what used to be “normal” box office a few years back are the patriotic ones. Think of it as the CBS effect. CBS was the ratings leader on TV for years not because it made the best shows, but because it made the shows that appealed to 55 and up people, who were the only ones still watching TV. In America at least, it looks like the only ones still regularly going to see Hindi movies are the “India Right or Wrong” crowd. Oh, and Rajinikanth fans. Them too.