A FEW GOOD HITS IN 2026 – But are they enough for Bollywood to survive or does India’s biggest film industry need more?

Last few months have seen All Time Mega Blockbusters like Dhurandhar – The Revenge and Dhurandhar, superhit Border 2, hits like Bhooth Bangla and Tere Ishk Mein, and successful films like Mardaani 3 and The Kerala Story 2. While between these films as much as 2700 crores have come in, the fact also remains that the count of successful films is quite low at just 7 in a matter of 6 months. Compare this with 40 odd notable films that have released in this duration and the success rate is terrible at less than 20%.

The industry needs a far better success rate to survive.

Yes, theatres have made money because right from the arrival of Tere Ishk Mein in November, something or the other has kept the screens engaged. Dhurandhar (December), Border 2, Mardaani 3 (both in January), The Kerala Story 2 (February), Dhurandhar – The Revenge (March), Bhooth Bangla (April) have ensured that every month there has been something at least in the offering.

However, Bollywood needs a lot more than that. Ideally, every month there needs to be two successful films at least so that by the close of year there are around 25 films that find themselves in a profit zone just from theatrical business perspective. Not that all of these need to be 200/300 crores successes. Some could well be in that 50-60 crores zone, as was the case with Mardaani 3 and The Kerala Story 2. Then on the other extreme there could be exceptions like Dhurandhar series which get into that 900-1100 crores zone. However it’s those mid-range films that do business in the vicinity of 100 crores that are the most ideal to keep the box office ticking for Bollywood.

The industry has done that in the past. Pre-pandemic, to get those 10-15 films entering the 100 Crore Club every years was a norm. In addition to these, there used to be exception hits which ranges from scoring 50 crores to 300 crores. However that kept the ball rolling. These days though it’s turning out to be a very different scenario. A year like 2023 sees as many as four All Time Blockbusters that score more than 500 crores (Pathaan, Gadar 2, Jawan, Animal), then 2024 sees Stree 2 opening 600 Crore Club and Pushpa 2 (Hindi) breaking the 800 crores mark, then 2025 sees Dhurandhar almost breaking the 900 crores barrier and then comes 2026 which sees Dhurandhar – The Revenge opening 1000 Crore Club.

However in the midst of these handful of blockbusters, there are far more flops and disasters than ever before which are arriving on a week on week basis, and here I am talking about those notable films which actually boast of a worthy enough star and still have failed big time despite carrying potential.

Hopefully, things will get better this summer.

There are multiple mid-budget films arriving which just need that 50-75 crores kind of lifetime to be tagged as a success. Pati Patni Aur Woh Do, Chand Mera Dil, Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai are all light hearted films that don’t need that 100 Crore Club tag to be termed successful. Hopefully, these films will click in the next four weeks and the success rate of Bollywood will get better and better before biggies start arriving this summer.