Bollywood Box Office July 2018 to August 2018 Report Card: Stree, Dhadak & Satyameva Jayate are the underdogs

After an excellent first six months to start 2018, where we had 13 successful films, the industry moved into the next three months with eager hopes of continuing the same movement, and boy... did the next 3 months deliver and how! By changing multiple equations along the way. Let’s start with the July releases, we had Soorma which got good critical appreciation along with a great performance by the leading man Diljit Dosanjh. It went on to do an average business of Rs 33 crore at the box office. 

This was immediately followed by the launch of two new star kids Ishaan Khatter and Janhvi Kapoor and they didn’t disappoint one bit commercially or with their performances. Dhadak, their debut film, went on to do a hit business of Rs 72 crore at the box office and became the highest collection for newcomer film. Thereafter, the month ended with a whimper as even after his own biopic Sanju set the box office on fire, Sanjay Dutt couldn’t save the disaster of a sequel that was Sahib Biwi Aur Gangster 3, which earned Rs 7 crore approx at the box office.

August started with three films competing with each other and in the end, even though Mulk and Karwaan may have been liked by a small section of the audience, neither they nor Fanney Khan, which released in 1st week of August managed to do well. Mulk did the best out of the lot with Rs 22 crore approx, Karwaan was Rs 20 crore approx and Fanney Khan was Rs 10 crore approx. 

However, Independence Day came to the rescue with both Gold and Satyameva Jayate taking extraordinary starts at the box office with Rs 25 crore and Rs 20 crore respectively, which when combined is the highest opening day ever, for Hindi films. It beat the opening day record of Salman Khan starrer Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015) which was Rs 40 crore. Gold went on to do an average business of Rs 102 crore. However, Satyameva Jayate turned out to be the biggest hit of John Abraham’s career by earning Rs 80 crore approx.

This was again followed up by a middle losing film Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi doing Rs 20 crore approx and Genius doing Rs 4 crore approx.

The next week will be a week to be remembered, as this will be known as the time that Stree released. This Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor film has turned out to be the biggest small budget hit ever. The horror comedy rode on the star power of its genre and opened to an outstanding opening of Rs 6.75 crore and currently has crossed Rs 115 crore already while heading for a lifetime collection of Rs 120+ crore. Yamla Pagla Deewana 3 also happened to release on the same day but barely managed to earn Rs 10 crore at the box office.

September started with a whimper again. with the dull Laila Majnu doing Rs 2 crore approx and Paltan doing Rs 7 crore approx. This was followed up by Manmarziyaan, which even though it got critical acclaim, couldn’t really get the audience's love or appreciation and will finish off at around Rs 25 crore, keeping Anurag Kashyap away from the elusive hit he always yearns for. Batti Gul Meter Chalu released last week and the hot director of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (2017) Shree Narayan Singh didn’t deliver this time with the film taking a dull opening of Rs 6.75 crore and then looking to end up at under Rs 40 crore lifetime collection. 

This brings the successful tally of films in 9 months to 18 films which is outstanding so far. Judging by the buzz around last week's release Sui Dhaaga - Made in India starring Varun Dhawan and Anushka Sharma, things are looking bright for Bollywood in 2018, as compared to the box office dude that was 2017.