Dhurandhar: The Revenge (Hindi) collected Rs. 101 crore nett approx yesterday, on its fourth day of release. With that, the Ranveer Singh starrer has become the first Hindi film ever to hit the triple-digit benchmark. Earlier, the film also cleared the Rs. 80 crore and Rs. 90 crore benchmarks on Saturday. It did hit Rs. 100 crore across all versions, but missed narrowly in Hindi only. On Sunday, it completed the job and etched its name into history.
Looking back, it was Ghajini that first hit Rs. 10 crore nett in a single day, doing so on its second day of release. It took another two years for Dabangg to cross Rs. 15 crore nett, again on its second day. It very nearly did Rs. 20 crore as well on the third day, which Salman Khan himself crossed next year with Bodyguard and then followed with Rs. 25 crore and Rs. 30 crore by Ek Tha Tiger in 2012. This was the period of rapid growth in the initial business, as the release sizes were getting bigger by the month, with the digital and multiplex revolution. The release size almost tripled from 2008 to 2013, within five years.
The screen growth plateaued a bit after that. The initial business also went down somewhat in the latter half of the 2010s and further Post-COVID. Still with growth in ticket prices and reduction in taxation, Rs. 50 crore nett was crossed by War in 2019 on its opening day. Following that, Rs. 60 crore and Rs. 70 crore nett were cleared in 2023 by Pathaan and Jawan.
Now, Dhurandhar: The Revenge has taken another big leap, hitting Rs. 80 crore, Rs. 90 crore and Rs. 100 crore in one go. The benchmark has probably come a bit sooner than one would expect from normal progression. This has happened with the help of an extraordinary ticket price hike, which is around 15 per cent higher than what a tentpole release typically gets. Having said that, the film has an extremely long runtime of nearly 4 hours, which limits its showings to four a day at most screens. Although the film has a very wide release, thanks to the empty marketplace, it has still faced capacity constraints in the bigger centres. With a conventional run time, the film probably could have gone a step higher.
There will be Ramayana Part One later this year, which is widely believed to be the biggest film in recent times. Dhurandhar: The Revenge has set the bar high for that film to follow. The film will also likely have pricing similar to Dhurandhar, if not even higher. It could also push better in the smaller centres, which weren’t that big for Dhurandhar, given its appeal limitation. If it comes with a shorter run time, there is a very good chance of that film hitting some new benchmark, though, given its epic scale, a longer duration seems likely, albeit hopefully not stretching to four hours.
The Single Day Benchmarks for Hindi films are as follows:
Benchmark
Title
Year
Nett
Day
Rs. 1 cr
Trimurti
1995
Rs. 1.00 cr.
1
Rs. 2 cr
Kabhi Khushie Kabhie Gham
2001
Rs. 2.50 cr.
1
Rs. 3 cr
Veer Zaara
2004
Rs. 3.75 cr.
2
Rs. 4 cr
Fanna
2006
Rs. 4.00 cr.
1
Rs. 5 cr
Krrish
2006
Rs. 6.00 cr.
1
Rs. 10 cr
Ghajini
2008
Rs. 10.50 cr.
2
Rs. 15 cr
Dabangg
2010
Rs. 16.25 cr.
2
Rs. 20 cr
Bodyguard
2011
Rs. 21.25 cr.
1
Rs. 25 cr
Ek Tha Tiger
2012
Rs. 30.75 cr.
1
Rs. 30 cr
Ek Tha Tiger
2012
Rs. 30.75 cr.
1
Rs. 35 cr
Happy New Year
2014
Rs. 36.50 cr.
1
Rs. 40 cr
Dangal
2016
Rs. 41.75 cr.
3
Rs. 45 cr
Baahubali: The Conclusion
2017
Rs. 46.50 cr.
3
Rs. 50 cr
War
2019
Rs. 50.75 cr.
1
Rs. 60 cr
Pathaan
2023
Rs. 68.75 cr.
2
Rs. 70 cr
Jawan
2023
Rs. 70.50 cr.
4
Rs. 80 cr
Dhurandhar: The Revenge
2026
Rs. 96.00 cr.
3
Rs. 90 cr
Dhurandhar: The Revenge
2026
Rs. 96.00 cr.
3
Rs. 100 cr
Dhurandhar: The Revenge
2026
Rs. 101.00 cr.
4
