India's Bollywood, Hollywood box office collections for 2019 only Rs 400 crore away from Rs 5,000 crore milestone

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The year 2018 was a landmark one for the box office as for the first time ever, the combined collections of Bollywood and Hollywood releases had managed to go past the Rs 4,000 crore milestone. Earnings in 2017 was far behind at Rs 3,350 crore, though 2016 and 2015 were marginally better at Rs 3,400 crore each.

However, something magical is about to take place in 2019. The reason being that even though 11 months have passed by, and another month is still remaining, the industry has already seen around Rs 4,600 crore in its coffers from Bollywood and Hollywood releases. With four more Fridays to come and eight notable releases in the offering (six from Bollywood and two from Hollywood), the magical number of Rs 5,000 crore is set to be surpassed.

These films are Dabangg 3, Good Newwz, Main Meri Patni aur Woh, Panipat, Mardaani 2 and The Body from Bollywood, and Jumanji: The Next Level along with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker from Hollywood.

The year so far has been for the audiences, exhibitors and industry as a whole, what with a Bollywood as well as Hollywood churning out biggies at a rapid pace. Ironically, the biggest of 2019 stays on to be a Hollywood flick, Avengers: End Game, which emerged as an all-time blockbuster with Rs 364 crore coming in. While that has been a major contributing factor to the Rs 5,000 crore club in the making, Bollywood too has seen a triple century in War.

Then of course there are several double centuries in the form of Kabir Singh, Uri - The Surgical Strike, Bharat, Housefull 4 and Mission Mangal, each of which belongs to a different genre. As for the Rs 100 crore club successes, 2019 has seen a record outing with as many as 10 films managing to achieve this feat. Here too it's Hollywood leading the show with The Lion King, and Bollywood biggies like Kesari, Total Dhamaal, Chhichhore, Saaho, Super 30, Dream Girl, Gully Boy, Bala and De De Pyaar De.

In total, 18 films have managed to go past the 100 crores milestone and it would soon be 20 with Dabangg 2 and Good Newwz guaranteed to breeze past this mark. Moreover, since only Rs 400 crore need to be earned in the coming weeks for the Rs 5000 crore milestone to be achieved, it should be a cakewalk as Pati Patni aur Woh and Jumanji: The Next Level are expected to open quite well amongst the masses.

Moreover, what would be interesting to see is whether on a standalone basis Bollywood manages to score Rs 4,000 crore, and Hollywood strikes the Rs 1,000 crore milestone in a single calendar year. Given the kind of collections that both industries have managed to churn out already, this pretty much looks quite possible.

Stay tuned.