The year 2022 finally brought some sunshine to the movies after two years of pandemic-hit sloth. Even at the beginning of this year, the absence of high-quality entertainment hurt theatre attendance. This caused a decline in box office receipts — another reason was Indians' shifting preference for OTT applications to access content.

However, films like Gangubai Kathiawadi, starring Alia Bhatt, drew audiences back into theatres and made it quite evident that high-quality content reigns supreme. This film brought in a solid Rs 129 crore. There were longer runs for hits like The Kashmir Files, RRR, and K.G.F - Chapter 2. Movies like Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Thor, Brahmastra, Kantara were big crowd pullers.

What also needs to be noted is that this year the number of Rs 100 crore-grossing films were far fewer than in 2019, the year before the COVID pandemic. This is because several releases were made available via OTT platforms.

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The year was dull for some films though. We saw significant letdowns from movies with great hopes, such as Laal Singh Chadda starring Amir Khan, Liger starring Vijay Deverakonda, and Raksha Bandhan with Akshay Kumar. Each of these films saw Rs 20-50 crore as its life time collections.

Source: Bollywood Hungama

Avatar: The Way of Water, however, was the much anticipated film that did just as expected as we approach the close of this year. Only K.G.F. Chapter 2 had higher opening day collections this year, at Rs 41 crore. Elara Capital projects a Rs 500–600 crore box office haul for the film.

The year's total box office receipts, as of the December 16, stood at Rs 3,570 crore, which is thrice that of last year but only 65 percent of the pre-COVID year, which exceeded Rs 5,600 crore. A revival in footfalls in December has definitely boosted this number for the year.

Also read: Avatar: The Way of Water impresses in box office with opening weekend; earns Rs 3,598 cr globally in 3 days

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Dec 19, 2022 6:41 PM IST