Hollywood comes home

2010 was a golden year for Hollywood in India. Perhaps for the first time, Hollywood films took a bigger start than domestic films with such regularity. The year saw the pie of Hollywood films increasing from 5 to 11 per cent of total Indian theatrical business. In December 2010, James Cameron's Avatar completed one year of theatrical run in India, grossing Rs 140 crore in the process, an unprecedented feat for a foreign film. Christopher Nolan's Inception surprised everyone by taking a much bigger opening than any Hindi film released during that month and went on to become a big hit. Harry Potter took a sizably bigger opening than simultaneously-released Guzaarish, a film which boasted of names like Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai and Sanjay Leela Bhansali. And The Chronicles of Narnia took a start that was almost double of Ashutosh Gowariker's Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se.