A Decent First Quarter Thanks To Pathaan :-
The industry saw a decent first quarter thanks to the huge success of Pathaan which became the highest NETT grosser for a film in Hindi. There were around 25 original Hindi film releases in the first quarter but only eight of these films were what you call releases that the audience was aware off and out of these eight films three managed to make a mark at the box office.
Pathaan smashed all box office records and is the first historical blockbuster post the pandemic as far as original Hindi films go. There was KGF 2 in 2022 but that was not an original Hindi film. The film is among the 25 biggest BLOCKBUSTERS ever of Hindi cinema while Overseas it can lay the claim to be the biggest ever. It is difficult to judge overseas as dynamics have changed over the years and today a big theatrical release is so wide but if we take the original film only and without the Russian and Chinese adventures some films had (which seems defunct today anyway) then we would put Pathaan top of the pile with the tag of biggest film EVER in Overseas.
The other film to be a plus was Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway due to the film being made at low cost and then doing reasonably well with a very tight release. The film will only do 20 crore nett odd at the box office but post pandemic this is the benchmark for films which which are budgeted under 30 crore. The film also did pretty well overseas.
Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar also managed AVERAGE business theatrically though the film will lose money due to high costs the box office performance is decent. The film had limited appreciation but a key here was original HIT music which enabled the film to open in some pockets and the youth kept on coming in these pockets. Take out the music and there is no doubt the film would have see disastrous results. The performance overseas was weaker than India and it should have done more.
The other main releases Kuttey, Shehzada, Selfiee and Bholaa could not do well with Selfiee being the worst of the lot. Bholaa could have done better outside Ramazan as the ratio of business from mass circuits was low for this films and multiplexes performed far better which should not be the case. It would have been a better number but still maybe not enough to make it a success.
Hollywood had a winner with John Wick 4 which was a surprise HIT. The trend to continue dub films from South continued but all went down at the box office.
