Box office: 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' and 'Pushpa: The Rise' bring cheer ahead of Christmas

Worldwide ticket sales of 'Pushpa: The Rise' had already breached Rs150 crore by Day 4 (Image: Screen grab)

2 biggies, 4 days and more than 200 crore been generated at the box office - That’s how the report card read at theatres over the extended weekend gone by, something that has brought immense happiness to exhibitors and theatre owners.

While it was always expected that Spider-Man: No Way Home and Pushpa: The Rise would bring in good money at the box office, the extent of it was known only after these films opened in theatres. The numbers were terrific across all languages: both films have gone past the Rs100 crore-mark in record time. While Spider-Man: No Way Home did that in just four days, something that is a rarity for a Hollywood film in India, Pushpa: The Rise got there even faster, with the landmark being crossed in just three days.

It is remarkable when a film crosses Rs100 crore in its opening weekend, and even more so when two films manage this feat in the same weekend. Pushpa: The Rise is emerging as a roaring success in the South, while Spider-Man: No Way Home is doing quite well in the rest of the country and keeping multiplexes as well as single screens engaged as it plays in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

The two films might set more records for 2021, especially since the reviews and the word of mouth are positive. One had expected similar results for Diwali releases Sooryavanshi and Annaatthe. Unfortunately, only the Akshay Kumar starrer eventually did well since the Rajinikanth mania couldn’t sustain the latter beyond the opening weekend. That’s not the case with the latest Hollywood and South offerings; things are uniformly positive here for both films, which could go on to earn another Rs70 crore each to bring the combined collections closer to the Rs300 crore mark before '83 arrives in theatres on December 24.

Taking about '83, it is expected to continue the good run for movies at theatres. The buzz is quite positive around the Ranveer Singh starrer. The film is expected to earn over Rs15 crore on opening day - anything over Rs20 crore would be quite good for the Kabir Khan directed sports drama that should keep the audiences engaged till the New Year at least when Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey releases.

Well, more on that later!