“Amazing Spider-Man” Released in India Four Days Before U.S.


05/14/12 08:59am
5 Comments

The upcoming Amazing Spider-Man will come out on the 29th June in India, four days before it will be released in the United States, Sony Pictures India announced earlier today. The previous Spider-Man franchise films have done particularly well in India and the Managing Director of Sony Pictures India Kercy Daruwala says that a large part of the appeal of The Amazing Spider-Man will be that the U.S. doesn’t get the film until the 3rd of July:

“Each of the Spider-Man franchise films has broken records on its release in this territory. We are very confident that Indian audiences will enjoy the new reboot of the franchise even more because they are watching it before the U.S. and also, as this film has an India connect.”

HollywoodReporter points out that the upcoming James Bond film, Skyfall, ”will open in India on Nov. 2, a week ahead of its U.S. release date,” just as Quantum of Solace did in 2008.  The HR article also has quotes from the director of marketing at Sony Pictures India, Divya Pathak, who says:

“Our lineup of strong franchise films with mass appeal and already established high brand recall are ideal for unique and exciting co-promotional activities with like-minded brands, both local and international. Many brands are choosing to partner with our blockbusters because of the incomparable scale of these movies.”

“After completing 75 years as a studio in India, 31 of which I have personally been a part of, I can say without a doubt that this is our biggest and most exciting lineup ever with tried and tested record-breaking performance at the Indian box office,” added Daruwala. “On the whole, we have an ideal mix of the biggest blockbuster action movies as well as comedy, drama and family films with an arsenal of great directors and top rung stars.”

When you take into account the fact that  The Avengers was released in the U.K. before the U.S. (as Avengers Assemble), will it become a trend in film releases to let the States have the film only after everyone else has tried a piece of the pie? Is this fair? Let us know in comments!

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  • Pari Choudhary

    Why is it not fair? They are still earning lots of money from these movies. Its just a way to promote the movie. Quantum of solace did really well in India too. Its a growing market of american movies so they are trying to tap into it as much as posible. And releasing a movie exclusively in a place has a lot of appeal to it.

  • Nadine

    Why would this not be fair?
    People outside the United States usually have to wait for everything forever. Not only with big movie but also tv shows that air months, if not years, after they were shown in the US. what difference makes it to fans in the United States if people in India have already seen it? Especially in this case where Sony Pictures obviously has some history in India it is only fair.
    Only because it was filmed and preduced in the United States doesn’t mean they automatically hold a privilege to see it before everyone else. Harry Potter is a UK production but fans in Europe still got the DVD of DH Part 2 almost a month after it was released in the US. I think it’s only fair they start mixing things up a little bit so everyone can ‘try a piece of the pie’ first for once.

    • Critterfur

      I see your point, but actually, the Potter movies were funded and produced by Warner Brothers, an American studio. They controlled where the films were shot, which directors and screenwriters were hired, and who was cast, to a large extent. They deferred to Jo Rowling’s wishes and filmed in Britain with an almost exclusively British cast, but they didn’t have to (of course, Jo probably would have pulled her support from the films if they hadn’t, and there was no good reason not to make the films as British as they possibly could. As for other countries receiving American television shows or movies quite a bit later than Americans themselves; well, it works the other way, too. Until recently, Americans were only able to watch shows like Doctor Who or Sherlock (both BBC productions) months after they aired in most other countries.

      Maybe things have changed a bit in recent years, but in terms of movies and the revenue they generate, America has been a big market, almost since the creation of the motion-picture. Look at Avengers, for example; yes, the film made about 600 million dollars over the course of almost a month in multiple countries, but it made 300 million dollars in only two weeks in America alone. If each of the countries that film had been released in had garnered 300 million dollars, it’s total gross would probably be in the Tens of Billions. That’s a big market, and not one to be ignored. I guess I chose to think about the whole thing not in terms of what’s “fair”, but what’s profitable. Maybe the audience for American films is growing in places like India and China, and movie-studios will start to re-focus their efforts away from the U.S.

  • http://twitter.com/19yearslater Sarah Moe

    Haha what? It’s kind of an odd promotional tactic, the aha you get it before the Americans! I don’t really mind though, I wasn’t especially looking forward to being the first to see the new Spider Man. Also, The Avengers is better than Avengers Assemble.

    • http://twitter.com/19yearslater Sarah Moe

      Just the title, I realize it’s the same film.