Is Hollywood taking over Bollywood at the box office?

New Delhi: The year 2016 hasn’t been going on a favourable note for Bollywood so far as most of the movies have not been able to leave a mark on the audience and neither earn big at box office.

If we take an account of the box office report, it is the Hollywood movies which are on the scoring position and are earning crores.

Reportedly, the revenue of Hollywood movies released in India rose by more than 92% (from Rs 227.62 crore in 2014 to Rs 437.79 crore in 2015).

However, Bollywood movies, on the other hand, have seen a considerable amount of fall in its earnings at the box office. In fact, it was for the first time in five years that Bollywood's box office earnings had dropped significantly.

Now six months later (June 2016), the trend seems to have continued.

While Bollywood’s major releases ‘Sarbjit’, ‘Azhar’, ‘Fan’ etc, failed to leave a mark on the audience, Hollywood movies like 'The Jungle Book', 'The Angry Birds Movie', 'X-Men Apocalypse' and 'Captain America: Civil War' managed to do a commendable business in India.

Talking about the growing differences between revenue generated by Hollywood movies and Bollywood movies, Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Pictures told a leading daily, “The best revenue generators this holiday season have been from Hollywood. The audience seems more inclined towards consuming foreign films than Bollywood.”

He further added, “All the Hollywood movies didn't just have good openings, but remained strong for a long time. The audience is now familiar with superhero characters and Hollywood has built strong franchises." Vivek Krishnani, managing director, Sony Pictures India, says, "The Jungle Book' has shown that there is an audience out there for Hollywood films. But if you look closely, all these films belong to the genre that works in India - high VFX, action, and animated. They have a much wider appeal.”

Reportedly, one of the major reasons behind the growing differences in the revenues has been the poor performances of Bollywood movies, which made people attracted towards Hollywood films.

Interestingly, Irrfan Khan had once reportedly stated that “Bollywood has to become bigger before Hollywood actually gulps you (Bollywood). Hollywood is coming with so much speed that you can't even understand!”

Undoubtedly, the first six months report card has shown poor performance by the Bollywood, however, the trend might change in the other half of the year with big festival releases lined up.  

"Big budget movies are rarely released before Eid. Summer is the time for low-budget films. We had low expectations from Bollywood movies in the first half of the year. We can't deny that Hollywood collections are a surprise, but with all the upcoming mega releases, it is unlikely that the situation will stay the same, says Tinku Singh, group president, SRS Cinemas.

Only time will tell if Bollywood movies will be able to win their position back at the Indian box office, or will Hollywood will take over the money counter in India.