2023 not only saw revival of box-office business but will also go down as one of the best years that Hindi Cinema has ever seen.

Ever since the cinemas opened up post the pandemic, it faced many turbulences and witnessed a sluggish growth. The box-office was failing to reach pre-pandemic levels and majority businesses failing to even break-even. This led to many production houses and studios resorting to Digital Releases on OTT platforms, as it seemed a safer bet. 2021 and 2022 did see some comebacks and a few films did give oxygen to the dying flame at the box-office, however, it wasn’t enough. But as they say, every night has its bright day, light was waiting for Bollywood at the end of the tunnel.

Cut to January 2023. Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan releases and collects a lifetime gross of INR 1055 crores at the Worldwide box-office. Bollywood sees hope as the King comes out and breaks all speculations, assumptions and notions. Fans were starving to see Shah Rukh Khan after a hiatus of 4 years and made Pathaan nothing short of a festival on its release. This wasn’t it. Shah Rukh Khan had 2 more films coming in the same year, 2023.

2nd was Jawan, released in September 2023. Shah Rukh Khan’s collaboration with Atlee, a filmmaker known for making massy commercial movies down South. Jawan went on to break the records set by Pathaan to become one of the highest grossing films ever with a lifetime Gross of INR 1,148 crores at the worldwide box-office. Again, Shah Rukh Khan’s stardom lit the air with festivities uniting fans and the entire industry. And this time, being a PAN India Film, the entire South Indian Cinema industry joined Bollywood for the celebrations.

Dunki, released on 21st December, Shah Rukh Khan’s Hatrick film for 2023. A much-anticipated collaboration between director Rajkumar Hirani of Munna Bhai & 3 Idiots fame and Shah Rukh Khan. While it is still doing its last leg in the theatres, the current worldwide Gross is approximately INR 450 crores making it one of the highest grossing movies in the family-drama genre.

The cumulative Indian box-office in 2023 pulled in $1.3 billion (including Hollywood releases like Oppenheimer, Barbie, Mission Impossible, Mario Bros. Movie, Fast X etc.) making it one of the best-grossing years of all time. This translates to approx. INR 12,000 crores. The pre-pandemic box-office of 2019 stood at INR 10948 crores and 2023 has surpassed the same by a good margin.

Other Bollywood releases that contributed a big chunk to this number are Tu Jhoothi Main Makkar with an India gross of INR 175 crores, The Kerala Story with INR 286 crores, Adipurush with INR 343 crores, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani with INR 182 crores. Then there came the OhMyGadar phenomenon with Gadar 2 taking everyone by surprise grossing a whooping INR 620 crores and OMG 2 with INR 178 crores. Salman Khan’s Tiger 3 performed decent by grossing INR 340 crores and Animal also took everyone by surprise by setting new records for a “A” rated movie by raking INR 650 crores.

2023 will indeed go down in Bollywood’s history being a year of comeback and great business for the industry. Now what is exciting to look out for is the fact that will this golden run continue in 2024 and how soon can another year surpass 2023’s records!