It seems the average movie-goer is much more patriotic than Hollywood seems to believe.
Few other reasons would explain the phenomenal box-office success of the Bollywood film “The Fighter,” which was released on Thursday, coinciding with India’s Republic Day on Friday.
Directed by successful Bollywood director Siddharth Anand and starring famous Bollywood actors Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor, Variety reported that the film, which “revolves around the Indian Air Force,” achieved a worldwide gross revenue of $25.1 million it’s opening weekend.
Of that $25.1 million, Variety reported that $20.8 million of that gross came from the international (i.e., not North American) box office, while in North America the film made $4.3 million its opening weekend.
According to a report in Forbes, “glimpses of Hollywood’s ‘Top Gun’ are quite clear in ‘Fighter.’ The Hindi film does not make futile attempts at recreating a foreign issue or scenario — it sticks to the Indian territory. There are direct references to the Balakot air strike, Pulwama terror attack and a few other terror and counter-terror attacks that took place in 2019 between India and Pakistan.”
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That said, the apparent derivativeness of the material didn’t deter audiences, and “The Fighter” has quickly become one of the highest grossing Indian films in history, outgrossing the previous most successful Indian, specifically Hindi, movies.
As reported in Forbes, “‘Animal’ and ‘Brahmastra Part One: Shiva’ were the only Hindi movies that made it to the top on Comscore’s worldwide weekend list” before this.
Clearly, the global success of “The Fighter” is indisputable.
Is patriotism still popular?
The question now is, what made it so successful?
There are surely a multitude of reasons, but let’s focus on a few major ones, specifically pertaining to its similarities to the likewise immensely successful “Top Gun.”
When the 30 years removed sequel to the 1986 Tom Cruise film “Top Gun,” “Top Gun: Maverick” was released in 2022, it was expected to do well, but very few expected the explosive success it enjoyed at the box office.
To everyone’s surprise, the film became the highest grossing movie of the year in the United States and ended up grossing over $1 billion worldwide.
One thing that most appealed to audiences was the patriotism displayed in the film — Tom Cruise’s character is a U.S. naval pilot, and the film unabashedly portrays the greatness of the American military and of the United States as a whole.
While not jingoistic, this full-throated celebration of patriotism has been sorely lacking in films for decades, last seen portrayed in a positive light in Hollywood in the films released in the direct aftermath of 9/11.
And seeing as “The Fighter” tells a similar story to “Top Gun: Maverick,” though covering the Indian military rather than the American, the reasons for its astronomical success become much clearer.
To Hollywood’s dismay, patriotism is still popular with the average movie-goer.
Most people going to the movies love their country, despite its flaws, and in the current dearth of public patriotism, they’re going to eat up any movie that portrays patriotism as a good thing.
While there are many factors that contribute to the success of a given film, we can safely say that, for both “Top Gun: Maverick” and “The Fighter,” the unashamed display of patriotism from both films no doubt greatly contributed to their eventual success.
