Was K3G an underperformer at the box office?

Seeing so many topics on K3G, thought of making one more.

Only talking about domestic collections here, do you think K3G was an underperformer at the box office?

The movie featured an ensemble cast of stars of three different generations. There were four major crowd pullers in the film :

1. SRK : Biggest Superstar in Bollywood when the film released.

2. Kajol : Extremely popular actress and her on-screen chemistry with SRK had a separate fanbase.

3. Hrithik : Young upcoming Superstar or already an overnight Superstar for some due to success of KNPH. His stardom was directly compared with SRK those days.

4. Big B : Recently transitioned into matured roles, but still some of his goodwill was left.

All four along with Kareena, Jaya and even Rani in one big-budgeted movie, with all it's songs being popular with the audience. That's why the movie took the biggest opening of all time on it's first day.

But when it comes to overall lifetime collections, it didn't set any benchmarks. K3G total box office collections were 55 Crores. It crossed DDLJ figures (53 Crores) and became the third highest grossing film of all time.

Although when it came to top 2, Gadar and HAHK were far ahead with 76 Crores and 72 Crores of lifetime figures respectively.

Coming to footfalls (no.of tickets sold), K3G had around 3 Crore footfalls which was nothing groundbreaking for a Blockbuster in that or any era. 90s movies DDLJ, Raja Hindustani, Border and KKHH had more footfalls.

Gadar released in the same year and got more than 5 Crore footfalls, making it a bigger Hit than all 90s Blockbusters barring HAHK. This feat only got repeated again by Bahubali 2 (Hindi version).

Gadar only had one Sunny Deol who was already fading out by that point. This film was just like any other release and media was more hyped about Lagaan which clashed with it. Still Gadar went on to do the unthinkable at box office, something which was expected from K3G.

K3G was supposed to be the biggest film of all time, but it really wasn't. It got a bumper opening but then became just like any other Blockbuster. Obviously the film didn't get the same love like KKHH from the audience, although it was supposed to be bigger and better according to Kjo.

It didn't become 2001's top grosser let alone the all time grosser.

Originally posted by: Maroonporsche

It didn't become 2001's top grosser let alone the all time grosser.

Well, it didn't top 2001 because of Gadar, but even if it released one year later, it still would've felt like an underperformer.

Originally posted by: AwaamKiJaan

Well, it didn't top 2001 because of Gadar, but even if it released one year later, it still would've felt like an underperformer.

Actually 1 year later in 2002 (which before Covid was BW's worst year)

In 2002 only 2 clean hits Raaz/Devdas. Devdas as top grosser was like 41 crore. K3G 55 crore wouldve been a breathe of fresh air then

Originally posted by: Maroonporsche

Actually 1 year later in 2002 (which before Covid was BW's worst year)

In 2002 only 2 clean hits Raaz/Devdas. Devdas as top grosser was like 41 crore. K3G 55 crore wouldve been a breathe of fresh air then

And it opened Dec 2001 - so right on the cusp of the terrible 2002 and a severe downturn in B.O. and footfalls.

B.O for K3G wasn't passed until 2006 with Krrish (72cr) . 2cr footfalls wasn't passed again until Dhoom2 with 81cr which finally passed Gadar in B.O..

3cr footfalls wasn't passed again until 3 Idiots - and that barely. It took anther 5 years to pass it again with PK.

Gadar's 5cr footfalls wasn't passed until Bahubali 2 (5.25 v 5.05)

So hard to say K3G unperformed. It just wasn't a huge phenomenon like Gadar and B2.

The movie was lie 4 hours long, could be a reason people didn't want to watch/rewatch such a long movie in theater and preferred waiting for the DVD etc?

Also DDLJ, HAHK and KKHH are ATBB -- it's difficult to break their record. K3G did good business, I am just surprised that Gadar was such a success and an ATBB

Originally posted by: Blood_Sacrifice

The movie was lie 4 hours long, could be a reason people didn't want to watch/rewatch such a long movie in theater and preferred waiting for the DVD etc?

Also DDLJ, HAHK and KKHH are ATBB -- it's difficult to break their record. K3G did good business, I am just surprised that Gadar was such a success and an ATBB

K3G was three and half hours long and was released at a time when audience was used to watching 3 hour long movies.

It's runtime is really long compared to today's movies running time, but it was only a bit more longer than movies which released in 2001. Gadar itself had runtime of 3 hours and 11 minutes.

K3G also had the potential to be an ATBB. Maybe not bigger than HAHK and DDLJ but KKHH atleast.

Kjo himself said he expected this movie to get a standing ovation and all but realised he made nothing compared to Lagaan and dch 😂

So yes it underperformed

It might be ahead of its time for some people.

Originally posted by: pathaka

Kjo himself said he expected this movie to get a standing ovation and all but realised he made nothing compared to Lagaan and dch 😂

So yes it underperformed

He was talking critical acclaim - not B.O.under performance. It had more footfalls than both movies combined and neither was a blockbuster. (BOI FWIW has them down as Hit & Average)