FAST AND FURIOUS 9 is Set For Summer Release

After several delays owing to the pandemic, the ninth installment of the Fast and Furious franchise has released its trailer ahead of a summer release, with India launch slated for 25 June, for now. The American action film, directed by Justin Lin, features Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, and John Cena in lead roles and According to gobeneficial will be dubbed in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

To be sure, India has a special connection with the Fast and Furious franchise. The seventh installment released in 2015 was the first Hollywood film to cross the ₹100 crore mark at the Indian box office. By grossing nearly ₹150 crores in the country, industry experts have often said, the film was pretty much responsible for initiating the surge that Hollywood has seen in the country over the past five years. The older film had released across 2,800 screens and netted Rs. 69.65 crore in the first week itself.

In fact, Fast and Furious 7 provides a fascinating case study on the exhibition and distribution potential in India. Going against the norm, distributors Universal Pictures had chosen not to restrict the screening of the film to DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives)-compliant theatres and had become the first major Hollywood studio to take their film to non-DCI theatres too.

DCI is a joint venture of several film studios, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros, to set up a common set of requirements that ensure a high and uniform standard of digital cinema viewing. Each studio reserves the right to release its films in non-DCI formats and while it may be a compromise on quality, the gamble had certainly paid off for Universal in this case, widening reach for the film.

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