The ‘Project Hail Mary’ Effect: Why Sci-Fi Spectacle's Success Augurs Well For Future of IMAX Screens in India

Fans of sci-fi, author Andy Weir’s enchanting grasp on space science, Ryan Gosling, and just deeply old-school American feel-good cinema from the Indian subcontinent doggedly assembled to watch Project Hail Mary the way the filmmakers intended them to: on absorbing IMAX screens.

It doesn’t really matter if IMAX screens were limited — India currently has 34 IMAX theatres, yet the film, led by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, had just 13 shows scheduled across them on its first day, despite being tailored for an IMAX viewing experience. A chunk of it went to Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar: The Revenge, during its time of release on March 26. 

Following a wave of online decrying, on Friday, the number of IMAX shows soon increased sharply, with more than 60 screenings listed across theatres. Tickets for early morning shows began filling up as quickly as they got listed. Moreover, India emerged as a key market for the title, with the film collecting a strong ₹17.28 crore extended opening weekend.

Film exhibitor and distributor Akkshay Rathie believes the interest around the film could be reverse-engineered back to its robust use of practical effects. The film is famously known not to have a single green screen shot. “This enhances the amazement around the film. It makes for a very IMAX-worthy experience, and that's why if you look at the kind of occupancy over the weekend, it's pretty much set to have a great, long run,” says Rathie. 

Rakesh Gowthaman, proprietor of the popular Vettri Theatres in Chennai, notes a unique nature of the film’s success in India. “Surprisingly, after a long time, an original English film is doing well, rather than its dubbed regional versions.”

For a film that’s a non-franchise title, unlike your Avengers and Godzillas, the success remains desirable. “I have only one screen right now because my other screen is under renovation. So I could fit in only an 8.30 am show for the weekend through Friday to Tuesday. For such an early show, the numbers were very good. Sony was also happy about the number of viewers.”

When a movie is made for IMAX, you need to watch it in such a theatre, and that's the expectation set among the public, Gowthaman says. “You might not have the same aspect ratio that IMAX does. When it's shot in IMAX, you have so much footage that gets cut when it gets converted to a scope screen. Obviously, when a film like Avatar is shot for 3D, you don't want to watch a 2D version, do you?”

When his shows began running to houseful numbers last Friday, Gowthaman assumed the film hadn’t gotten enough IMAX shows. “There was an issue last week when the film’s IMAX release seemed uncertain, with Dhurandhar's release in IMAX. With the numbers that I saw in my theatre, I was under the assumption that the film didn't release in the IMAX format at all, but I had a chat with the production banner, who said that the IMAX screens were running full.”

Aditya Sood, one of the producers of the sci-fi spectacle, recalls being moved by the demand. “First of all, it is astonishing and so gratifying to hear about the passion that audiences here had, before they even saw the movie, that they wanted to see it in IMAX, and to really demand it.”

Sood also acknowledges navigating limited IMAX screens in the country. Most of the country’s IMAX theatres were initially occupied by Dhurandhar 2, before screens were allotted for Project Hail Mary. “You only have a certain amount of control over how the distribution works. We have great partners at Sony here in India — they know the market, and they have relationships, so they work really hard to get the screens they were able to get. So I think all we can do is make a movie that feels worthy of being seen that way,” he says.

Rathie still believes it’s possible for two high-profile releases to happily coexist. “The demographics that these films cater to are as different as they can be, but the beauty of cinema is that there's something out there for everyone,” he says. “F1 opened really well last year. It was briefly taken over by Jurassic Park on IMAX screens, and Jurassic Park's time in the theatres, F1 made a comeback on IMAX and actually ran for many weeks to come. Let's hope PHM follows that trajectory. Maybe once Dhurandhar starts phasing out of IMAX screens, PHM may get a new lease of life.”

Sood hopes this demand translates into more IMAX screens and greater access for viewers. “Obviously, as people become more discerning customers and understand formats, and really demand excellent presentations, I think that’s great, because it will create more demand for theatre owners to build more IMAX screens.”

Gowthaman, however, notes that the IMAX model might not be commercially viable in the end-pricing structure in Tamil Nadu. “As an individual non-multiplex chain holding an IMAX, it isn't profitable. The last time I was enquiring about IMAX, I learnt that for the tech part alone, you needed to invest `₹15 crore. I would rather build three screens with regular projects for the money. Going forward, I expect to see a lot of flat screens coming up rather than a scope.”