Chandrani Banerjee walked in bright and early - as much as half-an-hour early - to catch the first day, first show of Avengers: Age of Ultron at INOX (South City). But just as she got to the ticket counter with 15 minutes to spare for the 9am show, a 'sold out' sign greeted her.
"I was devastated, to say the least. For a fan like me, watching the first show on the day of release with fellow fans is always the best experience," said Chandrani, who had to settle for a later show. "As I waited for my show, I could hear hoots, claps and whistles from inside the audi screening the first show. I felt I was missing out even though I had tickets for the next show," she lamented.
It was superhero Friday for Marvel fans in Calcutta as the second Avengers film, that brings together all our favourite superheroes - Iron Man to Hulk, Captain America to Thor, Black Widow to Hawkeye, as they take on a new nemesis Ultron - got off to a houseful start, with the young and not-so-young trooping into multiplexes all through the day. As a result, most city plexes recorded "almost 100 per cent footfall" in the morning shows with the evening occupancy in the 90-95 per cent range.
"The Avengers series has traditionally done well at the box office. The opening across all INOX multiplexes has been encouraging with 90 to 95 per cent occupancy. The film has also released in Hindi which propels it to a larger audience," said Subhasis Ganguli, regional director (east), INOX.
At the city's PVR plexes, the footfall all through Friday was in the 75-80 per cent range, with the promise of a bigger Saturday and Sunday based on the advance ticket sales.
"We have released the film on around 63 screens here and the numbers have been huge right from the first show at multiplexes," said Debashish Dey of Aum Moviez that is distributing the film in the region.
Fans milled around the city's standalone theatres right from noon, but halls like Roxy failed to play the first show, owing to a technical glitch. "There was such a huge crowd waiting to watch the film that we had to keep cops on standby because fans were getting agitated," said a source. The glitch was rectified later and shows continued as per schedule, resulting in houseful boards at most single screens.
With reviews praising the action-meets-heart formula that Avengers: Age of Ultron carries forward and the crackling character chemistry, the film, in Calcutta, has opened around 20 per cent higher than Furious 7, the latest instalment in the Fast & Furious franchise that has become the first Hollywood film to earn Rs 100 crore at the Indian box office.
"It's a great time for Holly films in India. After Furious 7, the Avengers box office during this weekend should really hit the roof... we are looking at massive numbers. Bollywood needs to pull up its socks," said Mumbai-based trade analyst Komal Nahta.
The formula in Age of Ultron that has worked with fans: stupendous action sequences, the trademark traits of each Avenger and the magic directorial touch of Joss Whedon.
The Marvel tent-pole film, that releases a week later in the US, earned $9.5 million in the international market on Friday, with trade analysts predicting that India could account for a respectable slice of the pie. The film here has released in Tamil and Telugu, besides Hindi and English, and also in 2D, 3D and IMAX 3D formats.
All for fans like Raunak Ghoshal and his gang of six friends who watched the film in Salt Lake on Friday and plan to go back on Monday. "I was waiting for this one from last year when the first teaser was released. I just could not afford to miss the first show and so we booked the tickets last night. All of us were wearing Avengers T-shirts. I think this film is even better than the first one," said the third-year student of Symbiosis Institute of Design.
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