Of all the films released since March 2022 since theaters reopened, industry trade analysts have varying estimates that only two films have generated “average” revenue.
Of the 31 films that were shown in theaters, 22 (about 71%) failed, losing 50% or more of their investment, and two became blockbusters, earning over 200% at the box office. box officeand five were minor hits making some profit.
There were only two Hindi films that were average at the box office or broke even but did not make a big profit.
“Today, box office collection has become a story of extreme behavior. If the film works, it works very well, and if the film fails, it fails so badly…it’s a disaster,” said Anil Thadani, a well-known film distributor and owner of AA Films.
Trade pundits were expecting Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 to gross anything between Rs 120-150 crores, but the film ended up doing much better with a net business of Rs 185 crores, while big budget films with stellar casts such as Samrat Prithviraj and Bachchan Panday failed to collect even half of their production costs.
| Movie | Film budget | *** Cash receipts | Verdict |
| Kashmiri files | fifteen | 251 | blockbuster |
| Bachchan Pandey | 80-90 | 39 | Flop |
| RRR (Hindi version)* | 550 | 275 | Hit |
| Attack | more than 50 | 12 | Flop |
| KGF Chapter 2 (Hindi version)** | 100 | 435 | blockbuster |
| Runway 34 | promised 100 | 23 | Flop |
| Geropanti 2 | 75 | 22 | Flop |
| Jaeshbhai Jordaar | more than 50 | 13 | Flop |
| Daqad | 80 | 2.5 | Flop |
| Bhool Bhoolia 2 | 90 | 185 | Hit |
| Samrat Prithviraj | 300 | 57 | Flop |
| Source: industry estimates. | |||
| All figures in crores | |||
| * Gross India Collections | |||
| *World Collections: Rs 1,140 crores. | |||
| **Total collection worldwide: Rs 1250 crore. |
Shaaminder Malik, a trade analyst and independent film distributor, said moviegoers are no longer attracted to stars. “If movies are available on OTT platforms in as little as four weeks, moviegoers aren’t interested in going to theaters unless it’s a ‘great experience’,” Malik said. “We have seen Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Amitabh Bachchan and Kangna Ranaut all fail at the box office while Kartik Aryan and even the stars have received a good audience thanks to this story.”
Industry analysts point out that such a sharp discrepancy in the box office of films is due to the changing “tastes” of the audience during the pandemic.
Ameyah Naik, founder of Fantasy Events, an event management company, said: “During the pandemic, viewers were exposed to non-Hindi content that had a reasonable dose of entertainment, novelty or compelling story, and enough depth to ensure sustained attention. After the pandemic, they cannot accept stories that lack all of these elements. Today, the audience is loyal to “stories” and not to the star, language or geography.
