Bollywood report card: Baaghi 2, Padmaavat, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, Raid are box office winners

It never rains, it pours. Bollywood was in desperate need for hits last year and Tiger Zinda Hai was probably the only beacon of hope. The first three months of 2018, however, have brought in enough good news. Riding high on the success of Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh’s Padmaavat success, the year has seen one sleeper hit in the form of Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, is on the cusp of another ₹100-crore earner in Ajay Devgn’s Raid and then there is the spectacular opening weekend of Tiger Shroff’s Baaghi 2. Akshay Kumar’s PadMan was another BO success this year.

However, it has not been all good. Sidharth Malhotra’s Aiyaary sank without a trace as did Saif Ali Khan’s Kaalakandi. Anushka Sharma’s Pari also failed to live up to expectations. As the first three months of 2018 end, we bring you the hits as well as the misses at Bollywood box office. But first, here’s looking at the top five grossers of 2018:

1. Padmaavat

After a delay of more than a month, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s epic period drama set the cash registers ringing when it hit the box office on January 25. The film, that stars Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in lead roles, has collected ₹286.24 crore. It registered an opening collection of ₹19 crore, went ahead to complete ₹100 crore over the first weekend itself.

2. Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety

Directed by Luv Ranjan, the film has earned ₹107.81 crore and ranks second in the highest grossing film of the year. Starring Sunny Singh, Nushrat Bharucha and Kartik Aaryan, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety was also the third highest weekend opener for the year 2018 with ₹26.57 crore earning.

3. Raid

Ajay Devgn’s latest release Raid opened to mixed reviews while Ajay and Saraubh Shukla received wide acclaim for their performances. The film has collected ₹96.97 crore and is likely to hit a century soon.

4. PadMan

Akshay Kumar’s much-publicised film, PadMan was the second big release of the year and it went on to collect ₹81 crore at the box office. Starring Sonam Kapoor and Radhika Apte in lead roles, the film was directed by R Balki and was based on the real life story of Arunachalam Muruganantham and his vision for low-cost sanitary napkin.

5. Baaghi 2

Baaghi 2 released this Friday and was quick to find its way on this list. With ₹73.10 crore in its kitty from the first weekend collection alone, the Tiger Shroff-Disha Patani-starrer has created two records - it had the highest opening collection of the year and is the second highest weekend opener. Directed by Ahmed Khan, Baaghi 2 is a sequel to Tiger’s 2016 hit film Baaghi that starred Tiger and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead roles. The new film is said to be inspired by Tamil film Kshanam.

Now, let us take a closer look at how films performed at the ticket windows over past three months:

January

Before Padmaavat, Saif Ali Khan’s Kaalakaandi and Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz hit theatres but met with lukewarm response. Despite positive reviews, the two films together failed to earn ₹3 crore on day one of the release!

February

Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaary hit theatres just a week after R Balki's PadMan but the Manoj Bajpayee-Sidharth Malhotra-starrer was slammed by critics as well as the audience. It collected ₹17.47 crore at the box office. The following week, Luv Ranjan’s Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety released on February 23 and went ahead to become the first surprise hit of the year.

March

The month began with a much awaited film, Anushka Sharma’s Pari but the movie failed to live up to expectations. The critics panned the film and it scored miserably at the box office, collecting a mere ₹27 crore. Rani Mukerji’s Hichki got a better reception and earned ₹31.10 crore in two weeks since its release.

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