Till now, 2017 has the highest number of films in the Rs 100 crore club with the tally of 9 movies
The film industry started 2018 on a controversial note but that did not come in the way of its successful run. The sector has already witnessed as many as seven movies entering the Rs 100 crore club even before the close of the first half of the year.
While there were films that were expected to have a strong run at the box office and zoom past Rs 100 crore collections, there were few that came as a surprise to the industry.
The winning streak started with the film that was marred by controversies — Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat — that had to go through a change of name, death threats to the filmmaker and actors and chopping of scenes from the movie to get a release date.
But when the film hit the theatres, it ruled box office until it added Rs 300.26 crore to its wallet. And the same success story was repeated by six other films in the last six months.
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While the industry’s hopes were riding on films like Baaghi 2 that earned Rs 165 crore, Avengers: Infinity War that raked in Rs 222.69 crore and Race 3 that has minted Rs 120.71 crore so far, movies like Sonu ke Titu ki Sweety, Raid and Raazi were the unexpected hits that collected Rs 108.46 crore, Rs 101.54 crore and Rs 121.22 crore, respectively.
A look at last years’ billion rupees club shows that there were nine films that could touch that mark in 2017 and it wouldn’t be a tall ask for the industry to go past this record in 2018 as it has inched closer to the number in less than six months.
In addition, there are host of releases that could join the Rs 100 crore list later this year, including films like Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Sanju, which is scheduled to open in cinemas on June 29 and has already created a lot of hype amid audiences, Akshay Kumar’s Gold, Ranveer Singh’s Simbaa and the multi-starrer Thugs of Hindostan, scheduled for a Diwali release.
Other entrants in the Rs 100 crore club could be Dhadak, Sui Dhaaga, Student of The Year 2 and Total Dhamaal, taking the tally to 15-16 films.
If the industry is able to achieve this target in 2018, it would be the highest in the last five years as the tally of films crossing Rs 100 crore mark has been six in 2013, eight in 2014, six in 2015, seven in 2016 and nine in 2017.