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Verdicts And Classification 2020
Thursday 31 December 2020 15.30 ISTBox Office India Trade Network
The year has been a disaster due to the pandemic as it saw just one HIT film with Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior. This is the worst return ever with the previous worst being 2002 which saw 4 HITS (Raaz, Devdas, Saathiya and Ek Chhotisi Love Story). Obviously 2002 was bad because many films did not work while 2020 was an enforced bad year due to covid.
There were films that found an audience when theatres were shut but whether these were Average, Hit or Super Hit that is impossible to tell as there was no box office. So for these films all we can label them is with success tag which means the year saw one blockbuster and a handful of successes.
BLOCKBUSTER
Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior released in January scored heavily at the box office and also recorded very good numbers on satellite. No doubt the results would have been very good on digital as well. The film created history in Maharashta by grossing over 100 crore nett in the state becoming only the second film to do so after Bahubali - The Conclusion. The film is not just the biggest HIT in Maharashtra this year but one of the biggest of all times. In Mumbai circuit (which includes Gujarat) the film did 143 crore nett while films like PK, Dangal and Ek Tha Tiger stand at around 103-104 crore nett.
SUCCESSES
Baaghi 3 was released in March and had a seven day run across India and then another 3-4 days in some circuits as the pandemic hit and cinemas start to shut down. The film grossed 92 cr with most of that coming in week one but even here the collections would have been affected by covid as talk of lockdowns had started. The film proved to the biggest HIT on television of 2020 beating Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior which confirmed that the film would have easily done higher numbers if it was released earlier in the year rather than March
Dil Bechara saw a digital release on Disney Hotsar in July and scored with record numbers at that time as it hit 22 lakh concurrent views on release. The film found an audience as it released after the death of the lead actor of the film Sushant Singh Rajput and the death was news at that time. The film would probably have not done well was it not for the death as a few months later the film fared very badly on satellite when the death was not main news. But the fact is on release it found an audience for whatever reason and that qualifies for some sort of success.
Laxmii saw a digital release on Disney Hotstar in November and smashed all digital records outside cricket as it recorded 37 lakh concurrenet views on release. The film had seen huge negativity since the trailer released but this did not stop the audience turning up in huge numbers to watch the film. The film would have seen very good numbers in the Maharashtra / Gujarat belt especially if it had a normal theatrical release on Diwali. North may have been a different story as there it would be depending just on Akshay Kumar star presence as the content would have held little appeal there.
Coolie No. 1 saw a digital release on Amazon Prime and became the top show on Amazon on Christmas. The concurrent views on release are not known but a fair bet could be in the 30 lakh region. The film though was watched in a record 3500 plus cities across India which is a record. Although Amazon is second to Hotstar in terms of subscribers it may have a wider reach with subscription in more cities due to more regional content which has led to the huge reach of Coolie No1. Again like Laxmii this film saw huge negativity but still it found a huge audience to emerge a success. The film also fared well Overseas as far as Indian content goes on Amazon prime but Overseas is all about face value and this would be the first time that Amazon premiered anything with face value for the NRI diaspora.
BELOW AVERAGE (These cant be called successes but are also probably cant be called FLOPS especially in such a bad year)
Malang released in February and grossed a fair 58 crore nett. Sattellite was not too good though.
Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan released in February grossed a fair 59 crore nett and saw mediocre results on television.
Khuda Haafiz released in August on Disney Hotsar and saw decent results of 10 lakh plus concurrent views on release.
The year saw a lot of negativity for the film industry in the digital world but the actual audience is very smart and will watch what they want irrespective of what is being said. People can praise things by words into the skies but still no audience and others can be trashed like anything but the paying public will still watch if they really want to.
Fan Fictions
8