MUMBAI: Last year witnessed a lot of chaos and confusion in the English movie channel space with Star Movies and HBO being off air for a significant part of the year.
However, in the time frame that the channels were on-air, diverse genre movies took the top spot in ratings. Spiderman III may well be releasing theatrically this year in May but the film’s predecessors Spiderman and Spiderman II continued to rule the small screen last year.
According to Tam, Spiderman II aired on HBO aired on 27 January, 2006 was the most watched film last year on Indian television and garnered a rating of 0.96. On the other hand, the first installment of Spiderman on Star Movies was third in line (0.5 TVR) after Mel Gibson’s The Passion Recut (0.6 TVR).
James Cameron’s Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, which released in 1997 is still attracting viewers and stood fourth in line with TVRs of 0.44. The film was aired on Star Movies on 1 May, 2006. What’s more, repeat telecast of the film through the year also garnered ratings when it was aired on 14 February (0.26), 7 May (0.43) and 14 August (0.39). Hence in the Top 50 films watched on television in 2006, Titanic sprung its head four times.
When Casino Royale, the latest installment of the 007 Bond film was released last year, Star Movies held a special Bond festival in order to cash in on the new film’s release. Old 007 films like Die Another Day, Golden Eye, The World Is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies, Live And Let Die, Moonraker and A View To A Kill featured in the Top 50 movies watched on television in 2006.
According to Tam data, some of the other most watched movies of 2006 on television were Alien Vs Predator, Ong Bak, Jurassic Park, The Mummy Returns, Seed Of Chucky, I Robot, Evil Dead II, Diamonds Are Forever, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Jeepers Creepers II, King Kong Lives, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, The Big Boss, Hollow Man, The Scorpion King, The Chronicles of Riddick, True Lies, The Scorpion King, Rambo First Blood Part II, The Evil Cut and X2.
