Box Office Report: South trumps Bollywood again in action-packed first half

We are half way through to the year 2024, and it is that time when we introspect about what we have achieved and what we need to achieve in the remaining half of the year. Looking at the business of cinema, post the pandemic, there has not been much to talk about as far as box office numbers were concerned. But the Bollywood trade circuit was pleasantly surprised by a good start in 2024, with a couple of films doing well in the first month itself.

The year started with Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor’s film ‘Fighter’. This patriotic action film was directed by Siddharth Anand. The makers Viacom18 and Siddharth chose to release it on the holiday weekend of January 25. The film received positive feedback and it ended up collecting Rs 358 crore approximately.

The next month saw another hit in the form of Maddock Film and Jio Studio’s  ‘Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya’. This rom-com featured Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon. Kriti played the role of a robot in the film and the music of the film also became instantly popular. Directed by Amit Joshi and Aradhana Shah, it earned Rs. 133 crore approximately.

Another suspense thriller, ‘Shaitaan’, which released in March this year, also did decent business at the box office and got Rs 211 crore approximately. It was a remake of Gujarati film ‘Vash’ and featured Ajay Devgn, Jyothika, Janaki Bodiwala and others. Director Vikas Bahl directed as well as co-produced it along with Jio Studios and Panorama Studios.

In the same month, Ekta Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor and Anil Kapoor’s production, ‘Crew’, too, gained good money, earning Rs 157 crore approximately at the box office. Rajesh A Krishnan’s comedy chick flick starred Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tabu, Kriti Sanon, Diljit Dosanjh and Kapil Sharma. The makers are now planning to make a sequel.

Apart from these big films, there were some sleeper hits like Yami Gautam’s ‘Article 370’, which earned more than Rs 100 crore, Maddock Film’s horror-comedy ‘Munjya’, too, is doing decent business and has already entered the Rs 100-crore Club. Rajkummar Rao’s ‘Srikanth’ and Kartik Aryan’s ‘Chandu Champion’, too, have been slowly marching towards the Rs 100-crore Club.

But some of the big budget films, like Ajay Devng’s ‘Maidaan’, Askhay Kumar-Tiger Shroff starrer ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ could not do well at the box office at all and are said to have incurred huge losses.

Southern magic again

While these Hindi films did fine at the box office, they faced a huge competition from South cinema. In fact, some of the films from South have delivered back-to-back hits:

‘Hanu-Man’ (Telugu - Box office: Rs 350 crore approximately), ‘Manjummel Boys’ (Malayalam - Box office: Rs 242 crore approximately), ‘Guntur Kaaram’ (Telugu - Box office: Rs 171 crore approximately), ‘The Goat Life’ (Malayalam - Box office: Rs 160 crore approximately), ‘Aavesham’ (Malayalam - Box office: Rs 154 crore approximately).

These are some of the regional films which gained more than Rs 150 crore at the box office. There are some movies which have done decent business though they were made with limited budgets.

Sci-fi, action mythological drama ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, which released this week, is turning out to be a monster of a hit. The movie, featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, Kamal Hassan and Deepika Padukone, among many well-known actors, has had a tremendous opening, which the film trade is pegging at around Rs 180 crore in opening day earnings.

While the first half of the year has been fairly decent, the second half is looking more promising with a plethora of big ticket movies lined up, including:

Bollywood releases

‘Singham Again’

Raid 2’

‘Bhool Bhulaiyya 3’

‘Welcome to The Jungle’

‘Sitaare Zameen Par’

South releases:

‘Pushpa 2’

‘Indian 2’

‘Devara Part 1’

‘Kantara Chapter 1’

‘Double Ismart

‘Kanguva’, and many more