Box Office Report 2018: Deepika’s Padmaavat and Ranbir’s Sanju continue to soar at the cinemas

This year brought has been a whirlwind for the Bollywood industry and the producers. Films in B-town are not just about critics and fans anymore, its much beyond that. A film now marks success according to its performance in the big numbers. And, in order to mark their presence, the Box Office is surely considered the father of all. Beginning the year with controversy was the Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh starrer Padmavaat. After a chaotic and no promotion pre-realease phase, the Sanjay Leela Bhansali larger-than-life craft opened to a massive 100 crores earning in the first week of release.

Earning a total of close to Rs 600 crores ($85 Million), Bhansali’s magnificent work is marked as the highest earning film of the year until now. While there were several other critically acclaimed films, the A-listers including Alia Bhatt’s Raazi, Akshay Kumar’s Padman and the chic-flick drama, Veere Di Wedding did wonders with their box office collection. The low-budgeted projects individually crossed the 100 crore at the cinemas and marked their success. However, Luv Ranjan’s Sonu Ki Titu Ki Sweety created quite a stir with its enormous collection of 148crores ($22 Million). It’s not very often when a non A-lister movie achieves the grandeur success like SKTKS, starring newbies Kartik Aaryan and Nushrat Barucha, did in cinemas.

When we thought we were done watching Padmaavat gain all the big numbers, Salman Khan’s Eid release, Race 3 hit the box office to a celebratory opening of 100 crores in the first three days after release. Even though the film wasn’t appreciated by critics and termed as a ‘senseless’ film, true Bhaijaan fans didn’t fail to prove their loyalty leading to the film earning more than 300 crores ($44 million). It wasn’t a long wait until we were presented with the extraordinary talented Ranbir Kapoor in Sanju. While this may have been considered Kapoor’s return-ticket to Bollywood, we are certain that the young and dynamic star is back to rule and how! Directed by Rajkumar Hirani, the Sanjay Dutt biopic brought together the perfect fusion of story-telling, art, acting and soaring box office numbers. While critics tirelessly praise the film and Kapoor’s acting, their performance at the cinemas also speaks for the team-effort put it. Earning beyond 580 crores ($84 million), Sanju is the second highest grossing film after Padmaavat and continues to run in theatres after one month of release.