It's the return of the Blistering Barnacles. Come tomorrow, and director Steven Speilberg is ready to take his fans on a cinematic adventure with Tintin and Captain Archibald Haddock.
Sony Pictures India will be splashing The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn across 380 screens in the country in 2D and 3D formats, making it the biggest release for any animated Hollywood movie in India so far. The 107-minute movie will be released in Hindi and English.
The other widely released animated films in India have been Fox Star Studios' Rio (217 prints), followed by Dreamwork Animations and Paramount Pictures' Kungfu Panda 2 (146 prints), highlighting the growing popularity of animated movies and craze for 3D movies in the country.
This is also the first time that a big Hollywood feature opens in India over a month ahead of its opening in the US, where it releases on December 23. "Our research showed that the brand awareness for the character in India is over 90 per cent; it's a very unique situation," says Kercy Daruwala, managing director, Sony Pictures India. "It is said that Tintin's creator Herge himself remarked about the number of letters he received from India and planned to base a story here — before he died in 1983. We are look at this buzz to contribute to the US release as well."
Even multiplex operators are cashing on Tintin. In fact, most of them are having paid preview that spans over three days. “There is terrific buzz for Tintin (a fictional reporter-adventurer who travels around the world with his dog Snowy)," notes Ashish Saksena, COO (south & west) at BIG Cinemas. "The advances are looking really good, as the movie is releasing in various formats. Even the paid previews have done well."
Riding on a budget of $135 million, Tintin is being produced by Speilberg and Sir Peter Jackson, known for Lord of the Rings trilogy and the movie King Kong.
The printed work, The Adventures of Tintin, is created by Belgian comics writer-artist Hergé (1907-83). The series is published in more than 80 languages with over 350 million copies of the books sold to date.
The movie was first released — on October 22 — in select European countries including Belgium, France, Spain, The Netherlands and Germany, where the Tintin comicbooks are most widely read.
Sony is leaving no stone unturned for its marketing campaign, having put up several hoarding across the country. For further promotion, it has tied up with Bookmyshow.com, Colgate and ITC.
Trade analysts believe Tintin could give stiff competition to the much-anticipated Rockstar, which is directed by Imitiaz Ali and stars Ranbir Kapoor as lead. In the past, popular Hollywood movies have had bigger opening than Hindi movies. For instance, Potter franchisees have beaten Sanjay Leela Bansali's Guzarish and more recently Zindagi Na Mile Doobara on the opening day.
