IMAX is quite popular among Indian audiences, especially for Hollywood films. But a small number of people still don’t prefer it for one good reason: It only shows movies in English, with not a single show in Hindi, Tamil or Telugu.
But this is about to change with the new Marvel movie!
Captain America Brave New World will have a Hindi option in IMAX 3D
Marvel Studios’s first movie of 2025 is coming on this Valentine’s Day.
The release date of Captain America Brave New World in India is set for 14 February 2025. It stars Anthony Mackie as the new Captain America saving the world from a new threat as well as stopping the Red Hulk played by Harrison Ford.
While the reviews are not so great (with some putting it on the bottom tier of the MCU), I was still ready to give it a chance. So, I went to buy the IMAX tickets and saw something that I usually don’t see.
Whenever a big Hollywood movie releases in India, you know that it gets dubbed in many local languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and sometimes even Kannada and Malayalam.
Most special formats like 3D or 4DX provide the option of these local language versions.
But in IMAX, it’s only English, even for blockbusters like Avengers Endgame. This is about to change in 2025.
Captain America Brave New World will have a Hindi IMAX 3D release in India. This means that if you want to watch this movie in the IMAX format but in Hindi language, now it’s possible.
Note that this ‘Hindi IMAX 3D’ choice is only available in IMAX theatres of Delhi-NCR and Lucknow. Mumbai and Pune are also major Hindi markets but maybe they are just first testing it with 2 cities only.
I have also checked ticket listings in Chennai, but the IMAX shows there are only English. So, Tamil and Telugu markets are currently not on the list.
Check the full news here:
Captain America 4 will have 30 minutes of IMAX footage in their exclusive 1.90:1 aspect ratio. This makes the movie-watching experience more immersive.
If you don’t know, IMAX screens are special, they are bigger (stretching from floor to ceiling) with incredible picture quality. Their aspect ratio is 1.90:1, having more height than a standard screen with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio.
See the example below for the difference
From my experience, their screens also have better brightness and saturation compared to normal 3D screens in India.
Of course, these things will depend on your local movie theatre, but I will always prefer IMAX over other formats, especially if you are going for 3D.
Why Hindi Dubbed option is not available in IMAX?
While you might find it strange that Indian IMAX theatres don’t include the dubbed versions, there are 3 big reasons why this happens.
First, most Hollywood fans in India grew up watching these films in English. So, we can say the core audience will always prefer the original language.
Second, the IMAX tickets are costlier than normal, sometimes even 50% more in price.
Data has shown that popular Hollywood films in India still get the most revenue from the English version.
For big projects like Avengers Endgame, it was 60% from English and the rest is distributed among local languages. So, theatre owners are comfortable with the original language for premium formats.
Third, you need additional permission as well as technical ‘sound mixing’ from IMAX corporation to process the Hindi or other dubbed language tracks for their sound systems. While it is not difficult to do, it will take some more time and money.
This is why IMAX was limited to English only for such a long time.
Takeaways
Overall, this will be an interesting experiment for Hollywood movies to get more box office collections in India. Also, I like that Indian audiences will have one more option to watch their favourite foreign flicks, in this new format. Let’s see if will it continue in the future or not.
And if you don’t know who I am? I am Ranish Chauhan a.k.a. Fulmino Fan, just a Desi Sci-Fi and Superhero Fan like you. You can also check my YouTube channel for amazing videos in Hindi.