2022 is a year where for the first time after the lockdowns are over that the people in the industry have finally got a clear picture of which kind of films Indian audiences (especially the audience from the north) are leaning towards. We have seen audiences flock to the theaters for films from the southern region like “RRR,” “KGF-Chapter 2,” and “Kantara,” and for films from the west like ‘Doctor Strange 2,” “Thor Love and Thunder” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Box office projections show huge collections for “Avatar: The Way of Water” in India as well.
In the midst of the success of all these films, the Hindi film industry, a.k.a. “Bollywood” is continuously seeing box office failures, one after another. They had occasional hits like “Bhool Bhulaiya 2” and “Brahmastra,” but Bollywood could not sustain the momentum it created with those rare successes. 2022 has been a severe drought for Bollywood, both in terms of the quality of its films and its box office collections. They simply could not provide compelling enough films to attract audiences back to the theaters. That may finally have changed on November 18th, when “Drishyam 2,” a much-anticipated film with a budget of only 50 crores, was released with flying colors. “Drishyam 2” opened in India with 15.38 crores, making it the second-biggest opener for Hindi films in 2022. With positive word of mouth, it witnessed a whopping 40.38% jump on its second day, earning 21.59 crores, and another solid 25.85% jump on day 3. Having earned 64.14 crores by the end of its first weekend, “Drishyam 2” had the second biggest opening weekend for a Hindi film this year.
| Day | India Nett Collection | Overseas Collection |
| 1 | 15.38 crores | 5.71 crores |
| 2 | 21.59 crores | 7 crores |
| 3 | 27.17 crores | 6.1 crores |
| Opening Weekend Total | 64.14 crores | 18.90 crores |
By the end of first week “Drishyam 2” entered the 100 crores club. Overseas collection got to 28.6 crores. And total worldwide gross collection of the first seven days was a mammoth 152.10 crores. “Drishyam 2” showed no slowdown in the second weekend. Indian Net collection after the second weekend stands at 143. 90 crores, and total worldwide gross crossed a whooping 200 crores.
| Day | India Nett Collection |
| 8 | 7.87 crores |
| 9 | 14.05 crores |
| 10 | 17.32 crores |
| Total after second weekend | 143.90 crores |
“Bhediya” joins “Drishyam” dream run at the box office on 25th November. “Bhediya” opened with 7.48 crores net at the Indian box office and 12.06 crores worldwide gross on day 1. Although, because of its budget of 85 crores, one simply can’t declare it a superhit yet, it certainly has a very decent collection. By the end of its first weekend, “Bhediya” grossed 43.67 crores worldwide.
| Day | India Nett Collection |
| 1 | 7.48 crores |
| 2 | 9.53 crores |
| 3 | 11.50 crores |
| Total | 28.55 crores |
Final Words
After the box office failures of “Runway 34” and “Thank God,” Ajay Devgn finally delivered a clean hit. The same goes for Varun Dhawan. After disasters like “Kalank” and “Coolie No. 1,” Varun has finally made a comeback with “Bhediya.” On this weekend (Nov 25- Nov 27), both the films combined collected 67.79 crores Net, which is a positive sign of box office recovery for Bollywood. With no major films opening till ‘Avatar: The way of water’, hopefully both these films will continue to do good collections for Bollywood.
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