24 June,2016 08:46 AM IST | | Gaurav Dubey
The much-awaited sequel to the 1996 Hollywood blockbuster, 'Independence Day', which hits theatres today, seems to be the hot choice among exhibitors and distributors
The much-awaited sequel to the 1996 Hollywood blockbuster, Independence Day, which hits theatres today, seems to be the hot choice among exhibitors and distributors.
A still from Independence Day: Resurgence
Multiplexes across big cities have shown preference for Independence Day: Resurgence over the six Bollywood films releasing today by allotting maximum screens to it.
A still from Raman Raghav 2.0
According to trade sources, the sci-fi flick will release on 1800-2000 screens across the country while Hindi films like Raman Raghav 2.0 and Junooniyat have merely been allotted 500-700 screens each. The other smaller B'wood releases - Rough Book, A Scandall, Missing On A Weekend and 7 Hours To Go - have managed to get 200-300 screens each for themselves.
Pulkit Samrat and Yami Gautam in Junooniyat
"The buzz around the Independence Day sequel is quite strong in the Indian market and none of the Hindi films comes close to it, which clearly reflects in their screen count," says a source.
Exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi says Independence Day: Resurgence is undoubtedly the biggest release of the week with not only more screens for itself but also expected to leave Bollywood far behind in the box office game. "Its collection is likely to be more than the figures of all Hindi releases this week put together, that too when Hollywood films have a screen count limitation since they release only at cinemas that have DCI-compliant projectors," he explains.
Girish Johar of Zee Studios says, "It's a big film and expectations are huge. The first film had done exceedingly well in 1996 and this outing is expected to take a flying start, much bigger than that of the Hindi releases this week."
