Can you tell from this video that India has the highest movie theatre attendance in the world? Taken during a screening of Billa 2 in Tamilnadu, a particularly movie-crazy region, this YouTube video of the audience looks more like a soccer match.
With the U.S. suffering from declining movie attendance, maybe there's something to say for these fans, who make Twilight devotees look tame in comparison. Of course, not all Indian moviegoers are this passionate. There's a subset of fans who turn out the opening day of a release and make it a noisy, enthusiastic, communal experience. But still, for every screaming Twilight or Billa 2 fan there are many more people who display their fandom in a less noticeable way. The screaming people simply convey one extreme of fandom--they're the part of the iceberg that's visible, above the water.
One of the best parts about seeing a movie with an audience is hearing the audible responses to the work--laughs, sniffles, and maybe even shouts at the screen. Of course, when you're not in sync with the rest of the audience (Think: People laughing at a horror movie, guffawing at a cheesy romcom), those reactions can be distracting. But for a movie like Billa 2, in which "an ordinary man from the slums enters an underworld gang and becomes the most feared underworld don," the screaming kicks up what appears to be a ho-hum fight scene to a whole new level of awesome.
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