'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' underperforms in India

It looks like the 'Force' has not awakened fully in these parts. The latest instalment of the Star Wars franchise has performed disappointingly at the Indian boxoffice. Though Star Wars: The Force Awakens is poised to touch the billion-dollar mark worldwide, in India the film could barely hold its head above water and was easily out-performed by the two Hindi films this season, Rohit Shetty's Dilwale and Sanjay Bhansali's Bajirao Mastani.

Says a reliable source from a leading multiplex chain, "Star Wars has definitely not been up to the mark. Disney thought the film would be a craze and released 1,200 prints across the country. This was a big mistake.We had no more occupancy than 50-55 percent.The film also has no repeat value for Indian audiences."

Says another source from another multiplex, "Star Wars has only managed to make Rs14-15 crores at the box office this weekend including all languages. This is far behind the first weekend collection of big Hollywood franchise movies this year like Fast & Furious 7 which collected around Rs 70 crores during the first weekend, Avengers which did approximately Rs 48 crores during the opening weekend and Jurassic World which crossed Rs 49 crores in the opening weekend. It doesn't look like Star Wars is here to stay. Quite unlike international market, where is has collectively made $1 billion."

Anand Vishal , Head of Sales at Inox, says, "The collections of Star Wars are just about okay. It is below expectations."

When asked to share boxoffice figures of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Disney India did not revert.