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Box Office Special: Here's why the first half of 2018 is the best for the Hindi Film Industry in decades
Here's what the trade experts have to say about the first half of 2018. With films like Padmaavat, Sanju, Baaghi 2 making it huge at the box office, the first half has proved to be a great success.
If the string of hits up to May wasn’t enough, June lives up to the momentum so far and delivers one of the biggest all-time blockbusters ever with Sanju.
The month of May delivered 5 hits in consecutive weeks with Avengers: Infinity War collecting Rs 225 cr, 102 Not Out (Rs 53 cr), Raazi (Rs 122 cr), Deadpool (Rs 53 cr), Pramanu (Rs 65 cr), all of them releasing a week after each other.
The month of June got off to a flying start with Veere Di Wedding taking a smashing opening of Rs 10.7 cr which was the highest opening ever for a female-centric film. The movie finished off with Rs 80 cr collection, which brought the years hit tally to 10 films In just over five months. This was immediately followed by the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic Park, which like its predecessors has always performed well in India, and this version has already garnered over Rs 80 cr till now.
However, after that Race 3 took a good opening and managed Rs 100 cr in the holiday Eid weekend, but the trend wasn’t positive and these collections failed to live up to the expectations from a Salman Khan film on such a festive weekend. The movie ended up at approx Rs 165 cr in two weeks, and even though this is a big standalone number, anything less then Rs 250 cr for a Salman Khan film on Eid is always considered a disappointment.
Thereafter, another Hollywood film, Incredibles 2 surprised all and has become the highest collections animated film in India by collecting Rs 32 cr till date and looks to get to Rs 35+ cr.
And by the end of the month and 1st half of the year, Raju Hirani and Ranbir Kapoor didn’t disappoint with the biopic of Sanjay Dutt, Sanju. The film managed to break records almost every day, with the highest opening day without holiday 34.5 cr, highest Saturday ever with 38.5 cr, highest Sunday ever with 46.75 cr, and doing 119.50 cr in the opening weekend which is third highest ever opening weekend beating Tiger Zinda Hai (Rs 115 cr). The film is being loved by all and is on a glorious run and is all set to challenge Dangal as the highest collecting film ever. Dangal managed Rs 375 cr for the Hindi version.
Below are all the successful films of the year, so far.
Padmaavat: 300 cr
Padman: 80 cr
Sonu Ki Titu: 101 cr
Raid: 98 cr
Hichki: 47 cr
Baaghi 2: 161 cr
October: 41 cr
102 Not Out: 53 cr
Raazi: 122 cr
Parmanu: 65 cr
Veere Di Wedding: 80 cr
Race 3: 165 cr
Sanju: 350-375 cr expected.
That’s 13 films that have made money for everyone in the value chain. Race 3 even though is disappointing still overall is a profitable film for all even if you subtract the losses faced by certain distributors.
Let’s see if the second half of the year matches up to the first half and delivers 12 more successful films.
Regarding the same, trade experts said:
Amod Mehra:
This is the best half-yearly in the history of Indian cinema I call it the golden year with films of all genre budget and subjects worked at the box office. Be it social, educational, comedy women-centric you name it and they have worked But the biggest take away for me was Raazi which was made by a serious filmmaker whose first film was a disaster and second was a docu-drama but her Raazi was so strong in the content that made Alia Bhatt turn into the big star with the film grossing about Rs 115cr which is commendable. of course the way Sanju's collection is going it will take the credit of being the highest grosser in the first half of 2018 beating Padmaavat.
Cinema does not have to fear of Netflix and Amazon it is an indicator for the growth of fondness for cinema. Digital content cannot eat the business of cinema yes Digital will definitely kill TV. The excuses we hear is all rubbish it is only to shift the blame because their film hasn't worked at the box office. The year 2018 is the biggest example of how good content can bring people to cinemas and it is not just on holidays but non-holidays too.
Girish Johar:
It is after a very long time the film industry has seen such a success. The last time we saw something similar was when Amitabh Bachchan back to back hits in the same year. While I give credit to all the films that succeeded at the box office in the first half as for stars--it was Alia Bhatt and Deepika and Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh.
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