Jurassic Park, the 1994 record busting Spielberg epic that aired on Star Movies in the last week of March, has notched ratings that would make a Kyunkii green with envy.
According to figures put out by AC Nielsen's TAM ratings, a small city like Cochin has garnered TVRs of 8.18 ( C&S 15-44 yrs), beating Chennai (6.03), Bangalore (3.88), Delhi (2.75) and Mumbai (3.76).
The figures have beaten the record set by Mummy, that aired on HBO in January this year. Mummy had drawn a TVR of 2.6 (Intam) and 2.88 (TAM). The film had made it to the top 100 shows of the week, setting a record of sorts. With a TVR of 2.98 according to Intam, Jurassic Park has managed to sneak ahead. The data collected is for all C&S homes in all 24 panels. The six metros and nine markets monitored by TAM have thrown up TVRs of over 3.4 for the C&S 4+ category.
It still rules viewers' imagination - Jurassic Park continues to appeal to audiences across the country
Figures put out by Intam are equally gushy. According to the agency, Chennai drew the highest viewership, with TVRs of 6.17 (TG C&S 4+), while Mumbai managed TVRs of 4.57. Bangalore with 4.51 and Delhi with 4.52 followed. One million plus towns in Maharashtra too had a combined TVR of 4.35 while those in Kerala had a figure of 5.63. Even small towns in Andhra Pradesh (1,00,000 to 5,00,000 population) have notched up TVRs of 0.59, the lowest managed by the movie.
Mummy was touted as HBO's first big movie of the year and was surrounded by a lot of on and off air promotional activity. Star too had spared no efforts in promoting the telecast of Jurassic Park, which had a successful run in theatres nearly eight years ago. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that premiered on AXN in December 2001 earned a rating of 1.2 among Indian cable AB viewers in the top five metros, making it the top programme on international channels between 1 and 29 December, according to AXN Asia MD Todd Miller. None of these movies has however been able to break Titanic's record score of 8.2 (TAM data for nine main cities 4+) when the movie premiered on Star Movies on 31 December 1999.
