Last year, in the same quarter there was a business of more than Rs 1000 crore at the box office. This quarter it's roughly Rs 750-800 crores.
The first quarter of (January to March), for the Calendar Year (CY) 2024, has ended and there is a huge difference in the business at the Hindi box office as compared to what it was in the Q1 of 2023. Before deep diving into the report card of the first quarter, let's look at some of the movies that majorly contributed to the box office business.
In January, Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone starrer 'Fighter' was the first big release that reportedly earned Rs 255 crore (gross) at the Indian box office. Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon starrer 'Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya', minted Rs 101.25 crore in India. 'Article 370' pocketed Rs 68.20 crore in India and earned over Rs 100 crore worldwide. R Madhavan and Ajay Devgn starrer 'Shaitaan' collected Rs 169.12 crore in India. Now, latest release, 'Crew' is performing well at the box office.
Outlook India spoke to producer and film business expert, Girish Johar to know the Q1 box office report. He shared, ''Last year, in the same quarter we did more than Rs 1000 crore at the box office. This quarter we are at Rs 750-800 odd crores. So, we are at 18-20% behind than last year's first quarter.''
Johar is hopeful that the industry will be able to do more business in the upcoming quarters. He added, ''This quarter we had Fighter which was somewhat decent, and the standout release was Article 370 and Shaitaan and to some extent Kung Fu Panda 4 (Hindi) which did decently well. In the last few days, Crew has taken a good start and even Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Hindi) is doing well. So, I really hope that eventually whatever loss we had in the first quarter, we catch up in the forthcoming quarters.''
Next week, two mega movies will lock horns at the box office-one is Ajay Devgn starrer 'Maidaan' that is releasing after several delays and another is Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff starrer 'Bade Miyan Chote Miyan'. Both are slated to hit the screens on April 10.