Are superheroes also saviours of cinema?

Thanos has spoken. Even as the purple Hulk and RDJ’s Ironman exchanged banter about ‘inevitability’, what did become perceptibly evident was that superhero behemoths are the fodder that will keep the struggling cinemas’ wagons rolling. Sure, you ask, are the cinemas really struggling to begin with? Every Bollywood film seems to easily touch that once-elusive Rs 100 crore goalpost — even total dudders like Total Dhamaal — but some simple math elucidates how they pale in comparison to what Marvelverse in particular and other films attempting to recreate the magic of Marvel have managed to do. 

So moving from the macro to the micro, focus on the fortnight ago release of the much-hyped and anticipated conclusion to the 11-year and 21-film build-up by Disney to its cherished Marvel properties —Avengers Endgame. It was the weekend that broke all weekends as the pop culture zeitgeist merged with the comic nerds’ best-laid fantasies to take the initial collection zooming past the $1 billion mark, the fastest in film history. Leap forward to now and the collection already stands at a mind-boggling $2.3 billion worldwide, well on its way to even break the once-insurmountable goal of $2.8 billion set by Avatar in 2009. 

India, not to be left behind, also throws up some interesting figures to contributed its fair share with over Rs 350 crore (a drop in Disney’s dollar ocean) banked already. The numbers appear to have set it up to swish past Dangal (also a Disney baby) and Bahubali 2 (basically the desi Avenger), the two highest grossing films in the Indian cinema history. It even set aside around 2,845 screens across the nation — where metros are the major contributors to theatre audiences — and ensured that there was no Armageddon or in millennial terms, FOMO (fear of missing out) when it finally hit theatres worldwide. Globally meanwhile, theatre chains were happily selling off 18 tickets per second in pre-release sales, yet another record. 

The buzz built around the franchise was so insatiable (the marketing team really works those heroes to the bone on the PR trail) that both multiplexes and single screens had to come up with never-before heard schedules that screened the film through the night, some even driving their staff to the labour unions by staying operational for 72 hours straight. Bear in mind that this was also the same weekend that Game of Thrones’ Battle of Winterfell was also eating into the nerdist’s mind space.  

Even the local Indian heroes are not far behind as the numbers for Rajinikanth’s beloved 2.0 or Bahubali 2 show that around 7,500 screens — of the barely around 10,000 screens in India — were cleared out to ensure that even Sleeping Beauty could not escape their great reach. Hot tip: She didn’t. Effectively, the only way to get you to step out of your jammies and put on your outdoor clothes is to make larger-than-life Earth-shattering spectacles; the rest is manageable in the comfort of your giant TV streaming Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, and the million other twins.

So, is make-belief Earth not enough for these lonely heroes to save? Must they also have to come to the rescue of the dying cinemas that suddenly saw footfall like it was a Black Friday extravaganza? Well, hopefully, the expensive popcorn was worth the trip. While Disney and theatre chains laughed their way to the bank, Orson Welles rolled over in his grave.