While 2018 made content the king, 2019 is ready to set the box office on fire. The first quarter alone has gathered the highest collection of the decade with 10-15 notable hits in the first 3 months.
After the government dropped tax rates in the first week of Jan 2019, the box office collection took a hike with URI: The Surgical Strike as the first release. The film didn’t just gather audience love but also minted money at the box office. Vicky Kaushal’s release managed to collect Rs. 341.75 Crore worldwide.
The growth followed with Ranveer Singh’s Gully Boy (139.38 crore), multi starrer comedy Total Dhamaal (150.76 crore) and Akshay Kumar’s Kesari (116.76 crore) that joined 100 crore club.
Rom-coms like Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon starrer Luka Chuppi (91.62 crore), Taapsee Pannu’s thriller Badla (80.14 crore), and Manikarnika (94.92 crore) also managed to keep their head high with good content and great numbers.
We also have debutants like Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl introduced with Salman Khan production’s ‘Notebook’ (3.72 crore) , and Abhimanyu Dassani in Ronnie Screwvala’s ‘Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota’ (2.03 crores), but both the films failed to create high numbers at the BO.
Films like Sonchiriya (5.5 crore), Bombairiya (0.14 crore), Thackeray (15 crore), Why Cheat India (7.80 crore) in spite big cast didn’t collect well leading to flops.
As compared to 2018’s collection of Rs. 850 crore with big releases like Padmaavat, Bagghi 2 and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, 2019 has surpassed the number with a total of Rs. 1023 crore, till now. In 2013 the box office crossed Rs.500 crore with a total of 535 crore, while the number has almost doubled in 5 years.
The first quarter saw 31 films with 5 biographical dramas releases. 2019 is yet to see big releases in the rest of the year. The second quarter will see Salman Khan’s Bharat and Shahid Kapoor starrer ‘Kabir Singh’, meanwhile Karan Johar production will be releasing ‘Kalank’ and ‘Student of the year 2’ which is expected to raise the bar high.
