The cinema culture has been changing a lot and trends keep changing from time to time and it has been proven every single time that there is no template or formula to ensure box office success. Talking about Bollywood, 2024 has been successful for horror films. Now filmmakers could think that the formula is locked and they would start making more horror comedies looking at the 2024 trends. But, by the time the script is locked, the casting is done, the schedules are locked and everything else involved in a filmmaking process is done and when the actual release takes place, the trends will be something else. Leaving things aside, the Indian film industry has three genuine huge mega hits this century and those are Baahubali 2 The Conclusion, Gadar and now Pushpa 2 The Rule. The common factor is? Let us know in the comments below.
The Characters
The biggest hits of this century are carried by the larger than life characters – Baahubali, Tara Singh and Pushpa played by Prabhas, Sunny Deol and Allu Arjun simultaneously. Along with the actors and the team, a lot of credit needs to go to the men who created these characters and made these films too. All three are big franchises of India currently but it is Gadar part 1 that is a bigger hit than part 2. For the others, the second parts are bigger hits. SS Rajamouli, Anil Sharma and Sukumar deserve all the appreciation as they were successful in penetrating into markets all over India and in reaching out to the interiors. Post 2000, these are the biggest hits not because of their huge gross and high number of footfalls but also due to the impact these films have left over audiences all around India.
Pushpa 2 The Rule: The Biggest Hindi Grosser ever
Allu Arjun starrer Pushpa 2: The Rule opened with Rs 70 crore in Hindi and the opening in mass circuits is indescribable in words. The film crossed Rs 700 crore and now is heading towards the Rs 800 crore mark. Bollywood had a new Industry Hit (All Time Grosser) this year in the form of Stree 2 but Pushpa 2: The Rule has crossed that with a huge margin. Back then, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion had created the Rs 500 crore Hindi Club and now Pushpa 2 has created the Rs 700 crore club and is now heading towards the Rs 800 club.
Rs 1000 crore in a Single language
To put things straight, Pushpa 2 The Rule is going to be the third film to score Rs 1000 crore plus in Hindi after Shah Rukh Khan starrers Jawan and Pathaan. The thing with Shah Rukh Khan is the extraordinary hold in overseas markets. His average films have been really big grossers overseas, not just now but ever since the beginning. Hence, without a China or a Japan release, hitting the Rs 1000 crore mark for any Bollywood film is a huge task that too with just the Hindi version and Shah Rukh Khan is one such name who can pull that off due to his unmatched star power overseas with the right content.
Of course we also had Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal that scored really big numbers and it probably missed the Rs 1000 crore mark due to the clash with Sam Bahadur and arrival of two huge films, Dunki and Salaar few weeks later but that had support from other versions too to reach that number. In simple words, the Rs 1000 crore pure Hindi gross mark has only been achieved by Jawan, Pathaan and now even Pushpa 2.
In case of Pushpa 2, the business is coming from core Hindi circuits because down South the audience would prefer the original language whereas in Jawan and Pathaan, the business from South is huge in Hindi and hence you can understand the penetration that Pushpa has achieved in Hindi belt. With the right choices in future, Allu Arjun will also become one of the biggest faces of South in North and join Prabhas when it comes to box office in North.
Biggest Hits of the century
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion is the biggest and the greatest hit of this century and that is due to the impact and the ticket sales. It is the only film from India to sell more than 10 crore tickets this century, in fact on assessment, the footfalls are to north of 11 crore. The 10 crore or 11 crore admits or footfalls are out of reach for quite some time.
The next big hit is Gadar. Gadar is a film with immense popularity that reached every corner and its footfalls are nearly 7 crore. In fact, Gadar is one such film where there is evidence to prove that the footfalls are near 8 or even 9 crores for that matter. But even if it is 7, it is one of the biggest hits of the century. Gadar 2 with 3.50 crore footfalls had much greater reach in rural areas and interiors.
Then we have a Pushpa 2: The Rule that will edge past 6 crore footfalls in a while making it one of the biggest hits of the century alongside Gadar and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. Will be interesting to see where the final admits go.
Pushpa 2: The Rule Movie Records
Pushpa 2: The Rule has collected more than Rs 1000cr in the Hindi version only. It is also going to become the movie with one of the highest number of consecutive Rs 1cr+ nett days in Hindi with Stree 2. The film has got a long run of more than 1 month in Indian cinemas and is still creating new records with its box office collection. In India, Pushpa 2 is one of the biggest hits of all time along with being the biggest blockbuster ever of Allu Arjun’s career.
Pushpa 2 has recently crossed the domestic collection of Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, becoming the biggest domestic box office grosser in the history of Indian cinema. The film is yet to cross the worldwide collection of Aamir Khan’s blockbuster movie Dangal. Going by the worldwide collection, Pushpa 2: The Rule is currently the 3rd biggest grosser behind the Prabhas starrer Baahubali 2: The Conclusion and Aamir Khan starrer Dangal.
The film has started screening in theatres nationwide with additional footage of around 20 mins from 17 January. For all the Allu Arjun fans who have already watched the movie, this can prove to be a great opportunity to revisit the action blockbuster.
Stay Tuned to Inside Box Office for detailed box office analysis on major Bollywood releases.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Pushpa 2: The Rule is the highest grossing film in Hindi.
