North America is witnessing a shift in its Indian film market. While Telugu and Hindi films traditionally lead, recent successes like ‘Coolie’ have highlighted the potential of other regional cinemas. ‘Lokah: Chapter 1- Chandra’ has also performed well, but Teja Sajja’s ‘Mirai’ quickly surpassed its North American earnings, contrasting with their box office performance in India.
North America has become the biggest market for Indian films outside of India, the market has been dominated by usually Telugu and Hindi films- which can be witnessed by the successful runs of films like Baahubali 2- The Conclusion, RRR, Pathaan, Animal and many more. As and when there have been few films from other industries like Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam have also set benchmarks at the ticket window, recent examples like Rajnikanth’s Jailer and Coolie. At present the North American box office is going through an interesting change as August was dominated by Rajnikanth and Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie which went on to collect nearly USD 7 million in the circuit. And by the end of August it was Dulquer Salmaan backed and Kalyani Pridarshan healdined Lokah: Chapter 1- Chandra which in its 20 days at the box office has gone on to collect USD 2.01 million. It has become the 2nd highest Malayalam film in the circuit after Prithviraj and Mohanlal’s L2: Empuraan.
But when it comes to the circuit as reported earlier Telugu and Hindi films dominate the circuit. A latest Telugu release Mirai- headlined by Teja Sajja has outperformed Lokah’s 20 day run in just 5 days. The film has minted USD 2.05 million with 2 more days left for the complete and going by the trends it can very much become the 2nd biggest Telugu film of the year after Venkatesh’s Sankranthiki Vasthunam. But in India, the response at the ticket window is completely opposite. In 21 days Lokah has minted almost 127 crore while Mirai has collected Rs 61.50 crore in 5 days. It would be interesting to see how both the films perform from here on in both the markets. Both films are part of ‘Universes’ that will grow in the coming years.
