Box office: Animal is a runaway success, with India collections nearing Rs 500 crore

Animal will be the fifth Hindi film ever to enter the 500 Crore Club. (Screen grab/YouTube/T-Series)

In just a few hours from now, Animal will emerge as the fourth 500 Crore Club Bollywood movie in 2023. Though the dubbed Hindi version of Telugu film Baahubali: The Conclusion had achieved this back in 2017, surprisingly there was no follow up of this feat in 2018 and 2019. Then of course came the pandemic and while 2020 didn’t see any films releasing, 2021 was dull, with Sooryavanshi being the only shining spot. 2022 was the year of recovery and now in 2023 Bollywood is back with a vengeance.

It was Shah Rukh Khan who kick-started it all with Pathaan, which entered the 500 Crore Club with aplomb, and then followed it up with Jawan which went a step ahead and gathered over Rs 600 crore at the domestic box office alone. In between, there was Gadar 2, too, which created mayhem and went past the Rs 500 crore mark with ease. Now, there is Ranbir Kapoor starter Animal which is running in beast mode, and while it has netted close to Rs 490 crore in its first 15 days, it should go past the Rs 500 crore mark rather comfortably on Day 16 in theatres (December 16, 2023).

This would make the film the fourth 500 Crore Club entrant of 2023 and the fifth Hindi film overall to have achieved this feat.

What makes things all the more interesting is that the year is yet to come to a close and two mega films remain to be released. While Bollywood is coming up with Dunki, from the south, there is Salaar, which would be seeing a mega release in Hindi as well. Shah Rukh Khan is leading from the front in Dunki and then Prabhas will be bringing his pan-India appeal with Salaar.

The directors of both the movies are credible too. Rajkumar Hirani (Munna Bhai MBBS, PK, 3 Idiots, Sanju, and now Dunki) would be looking to deliver yet another all-time blockbuster that caters to the entire family audience. On the other hand, Prashanth Neel proved his mettle with the KGF franchise and he would be aiming to keep the flag high with Salaar, which is yet another out-and-out action-packed film.

While Dunki releases this Thursday, Salaar follows on Friday. It’s a given that it’s going to be a massive weekend ahead, especially with the holiday season starting. Record collections are on the way for the film and all eyes are on whether Friday will emerge as the biggest day ever in history. So far, it’s Jawan which holds the record as its highest single-day (Sunday) collections stood at Rs 80.10 crore. Now we can expect the combined collections of Dunki and Salaar (Hindi) to surpass this mark at least on a couple of days during their long weekend run.

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources