'Filmein sirf teen cheezo ke wajah se chalti hain' (movies have a good run due to three reasons), Vidya Balan had reminded Bollywood in her iconic movie Dirty Picture. And the three reasons were entertainment, entertainment and entertainment. Stree 2 has delivered on those reasons to become the biggest Hindi grosser of 2024, and theatre owners have heaved a sigh of relief.
Life before Stree 2 was dull for exhibitors. "February to mid-June was a disaster. Only Shaitaan did some decent business. But during this period we were deep into red," said Ashutosh Agarwal, director at Starworld Cinemas, who said the only respite before Stree 2's release were Kalki and Munjya which helped them break even by the end of June and in July.
The horror-comedy which has kept both audiences as well as exhibitors on the edge of their seats is all set to enter the Rs 300-crore club with collections to the tune of Rs 289 crore in its eight-day run in cinema halls. For its full run, the expectations are that the film could touch Rs 400-500 crore last seen for Hindi movies like Sunny Deol's Gadar 2 and Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan.
"Before Stree 2, our situation was very bad. Kalki and Deadpool & Wolverine pumped some oxygen into our lungs. With Fighter we made some money, Shaitaan helped us sustain and Munjya helped us to pay the bills. Then Kalki was a breather as we could pay our bills. And now with Stree 2, we have surplus for the year and have cut our losses," said Vishek Chauhan, owner of single-screen theatre Roopbani Cinema in Bihar.
Cinema owners like Akshaye Rathi, film exhibitor/director, Saroj Screens, were afraid to even look at their business each day after Kalki's run in theatres.
"It has been a dry spell after Kalki and we were afraid to look at collections at the end of the day and to find out that the revenues made would not meet the operational expenses of the day. We faced multiple such days," he said.
Stree 2 was a much needed blockbuster, said producer and film trade expert, Girish Johar who said that if the movie had not tasted the success it has then many single screen theatres would have shut down temporarily.
"Stree 2 has given the much needed support to cinemas which were on the verge of closing down. The Hindi film market is heaving a sigh of relief," he said.
India's top multiplex chain PVR Inox which suffered losses in the June quarter of FY25 also said that Stree 2 has emerged as a game-changer in the current landscape. "The movie has injected much-needed energy into theatres and the box office. Before its release, we experienced slower growth due to the absence of major blockbusters, which impacted overall ticket sales and occupancy," said Gaurav Sharma, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) PVR Inox Limited.
Biggest blockbuster
Chauhan said a couple of months back, no one would have thought that a film belonging to the horror comedy genre could have done record business this year.
The Rs 50-crore budget film, Stree 2 is a chota packet (smaller film) making big dhamaka (impact) at the box office.
"Stree 2's admission has crossed all the admissions of all the movies released this year. We have been able to do 5 lakh admissions for the film," said Amit Sharma, Managing Director, Miraj Cinemas.
He said that while Kalki too was a huge success, it was a Telugu film dubbed in other languages and did not see very strong traction in North India.
On the other hand, Stree 2 surpassed all expectations with its mass appeal, said Devang Sampat, Managing Director, Cinépolis India. "Achieving occupancy levels of up to 80 percent over the long weekend, the movie is expected to cross a million footfalls at Cinepolis in its first week," he added.
The sequel to 2018 release Stree in just under a week recorded sales of six million tickets on BookMyShow, noted Ashish Saksena, COO (chief operating officer), Cinemas.
It has also made a couple of records. Apart from being the biggest Hindi blockbuster of 2024, it is the third highest opener among Hindi films. "Stree 2 is the highest grosser for Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkumar Rao. Also, Singham and Ek Tha Tiger were the biggest Independence Day openers and Stree 2 has surpassed these films," Johar said.
"The movie has done wonders at the box office and has set the box office on fire for the September quarter," pointed out Nitin Menon of NV Capital.
Stree 2 drives business
The box office also benefited from the extended weekend which coincided with Independence Day and Raksha Bandhan holidays. During this six-day period (August 15-20), total box office business across India exceeded expectations with a business of Rs 400 crore net, said PVR Inox's Sharma.
While the Indian cinema witnessed its highest ever combined weekend gross box office collection of Rs 390 crore between August 11-13 last year with Rs 190 crore coming on August 15, this year it was only Stree 2 that drove the box office.
Last year there were three films working simultaneously --- Gadar 2, OMG 2 and Rajinikanth's Jailer and this year only one movie did the heavy lifting, Chauhan said.
Yet for Agarwal, business was similar to last year with Stree 2's collections at par with that of Gadar 2.
"Average occupancy of 90 percent was recorded for Stree 2 during the long weekend which is huge in today's time and was seen for a movie like Gadar 2. But the Sunny Deol-starrer was a wider release with 4,500 screens versus Stree 2's 3,000 screen release," Johar said.
Menon compared Stree 2 with last year's blockbusters like Jawan and Animal with the horror comedy ranking fifth among movies with highest opening week collections. While Jawan and Animal collected Rs 315 crore and Rs 292 crore in week one respectively, Stree 2 is not far behind with Rs 276 crore despite being a medium budget film. Jawan and Animal were made on a budget of Rs 300 and Rs 100 crore respectively.
Fewer and delayed releases
However, Rathi wished for Vedaa and Khel Khel Mein to do better at the box office which would have resulted in a stronger long weekend business.
"Stree 2's collections were dented because of these two movies. At least in North India, Stree 2 suffered a dent of Rs 4-5 crore due to the clash with the other two Bollywood movies that released on the same day affecting Stree 2's screen count," Agarwal said.
The movie business has become sporadic as either movies do extremely well or do nothing at all and we have had long stretches of such a situation, Rathi highlighted. And Bollywood has been at the receiving end with the Hindi film market's box office decreasing to Rs 1,600 crore in the first six months this year from Rs 1,900 crore in 2023 during the same period, Johar noted.
"While we hope the current momentum continues because we are unsure about what films to expect next. People are saying Pushpa 2 is getting postponed to next year. Even the pipeline in 2025 is staggered. Less and less theatrical films are being launched because people have lost confidence in the box office," Chauhan said.
He added that Stree 2's success shows that audiences are dying to come to theatres but the challenge is that there are no films. The problem solely lies with production, he said.
Rathi said that big films like Pushpa 2 getting delayed affects the whole release cycle.
"When a big ticket movie sets a date for release and if the date moves and no other movie has the ability to take the spot, that is like an inventory gone to waste. So, I hope filmmakers are more careful when scheduling movie release dates," he added.
Big on story not stars
Another aspect exhibitors highlighted was the impact of quality content.
Stree 2 is not big on budget and without any superstar, yet the movie has appealed to audiences across markets, Rathi said who recently tweeted that the credit for success ought to go to the filmmakers of a movie which has an opening day number higher than the average lifetime business of all the past films featuring the actor / actress in it.
Exhibitors have called out the lead actors of Stree 2 -- Shraddha Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao saying that they are hogging the limelight when all the credit should go to director Amar Kaushik and movie producer Dinesh Vijan, the makers of Stree 2. They also said that makers of these actors' forthcoming films should be rational when it comes to deciding their remuneration going ahead.
The big fat pay cheque of stars despite movies failing at the box office is turning out to be a big concern for the film industry.
Rathi said that the industry needs more movies which are big on ideas.
"South knows how to make pan-India films. This is why Shah Rukh Khan teamed up with Tamil director Atlee Kumar to get his biggest hit of the year -- Jawan. Salman Khan has taken a cue and teamed up with Ghajini director AR Murugadoss for his next venture titled Sikandar," Chauhan said.
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