2024 Hindi box office report card: Small budgets, big applause; re-releases rule

If 2023 was a blockbuster year, 2024 has been a semi-hit, the trade circle unanimously agrees. Ever since the Covid pandemic hit the world, film business was struggling to get back on it’s feet, and last year was that breakthrough with multiple blockbusters. But this year has seen less hits and more misses.

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It started off on an average note, with Siddharth Anand-Hrithik Roshan-Deepika Padukone’s aerial actioner, Fighter, not soaring as expected. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh points out, “2024 started with a whimper, Fighter didn’t live up to the expectations, considering Sidharth was fresh off the success of Pathaan. It has ended with a whimper like Baby John which crashed on day two. You can describe what happened between these two films as kabhi kabhi khushi, bauahut saara gham. Last year we had four 500 crore grossers- Pathaan, Jawan, Gadar 2 and Animal from Hindi film industry. One felt ‘wow, we can achieve these numbers’. But films like Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Maidaan just disappointed so much. Singham Again, too didn’t meet expectations.”

‘Scary’ new success

What’s interesting to note is that many films which did well- Munjya, Shaitaan, Stree 2: Sarkate Ka Aatank and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3- they all had horror as a common link. Trade expert Atul Mohan says, “Horror hasn’t always yielded good results in our industry, it’s always been a trial and error. These films changed that because three out of these had comedy as a core element.”

RRR: Re-releases rule

Nostalgia was- and is- a powerful factor driving viewers inside the theatres. Films which didn’t get their due upon their original release, found mass acceptance this time. Avinash Tiwary- Triptii Dimri starrer Laila Majnu started off with theatres in Kashmir, then the mania caught on throughout the country. Same goes for Rockstar, starring Ranbir Kapoor. Many others cashed in on the trend, and even now films like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) are set to return to the big screen.

The year of small to mid-budget films

A major conversation point throughout the year has been rising production costs, actors’ fees, and why reducing them is the need of the hour. In fact, Munjya has been the dark horse, considering it was made on a budget of ?30 crores and collected more than three times of it’s production cost. Director Aditya Sarpotdar says, “This was a pleasant surprise. We were confident about Munjya, but even we didn’t anticipate these numbers, because it starred newcomers, was local in it’s flavour, had a CGI character. It was a massive experiment for me. The producer, Dinesh Vijan put all his might and said ‘let’s try, we don’t know where we will go with this’ Producers standing by their films makes all the difference. The audiences sense that it is something they should watch in theatres.”

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Films made on controlled budgets have all done very well, so it won’t be wrong to say that 2024 has also been the year of small to mid-budget films like Yami Gautam’s Article 370. HanuMan, directed by Prasanth Varma, impressed everyone with it’s VFX, with the entire film’s budget hovering around ?25 crores. The Return on Interest was a staggering 241 percent roughly. “I got to know that around 30 theatres that had shut down during Covid times, reopened to screen our film, and they made enough money to run for a year. Now it is my responsibility to give them another film very soon so they can sustain more,” Varma told us.

Sarpotdar adds that another example of controlled budgets doing wonders is Laapataa Ladies, “Aamir Khan backing a film like this... with anybody else, the film would not have been where it is today. He went all out, same with Madgaon Express. More than the big films, it was the year for such films, with great producers who saw to it that these films also do the numbers by backing them. The numbers were big, that’s a bonus, but even a small budget film raking in more than it’s budget is a win if you see the economics.”

Franchise factor

Pushpa 2: The Rule has done big business across India, especially it’s Hindi dubbed version. Stree 2, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3- clearly the franchise power was at play too in 2024. Anees Bazmee, who directed BB3, says the debate around the industry’s reliance on franchise and nostalgia doesn’t hold, “There’s always an advantage when it’s a second or third part. There’s goodwill that a film enjoys. But you have to make a good film because if you don’t, then it’s difficult to make another part in the franchise. It’s a big responsibility. When one part doesn’t do well, it’s not just that film which suffers- ek poora franchise khatam ho jaata hai.”