Despite no big release and most big stars staying away from the silver screen, 2019 turned out to be a profitable year for Bollywood.
Bollywood’s big stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Deepika Padukone were not seen on the silver screen this year. Despite these big stars not featuring in any film, movies like ‘War’, ‘Kabir Singh’, ‘Bharat’, ‘Saaho’, ‘Housefull 4’ and ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ made 2019 a profitable year for Bollywood as revenues crossed an impressive Rs 4000 crore for the year gone by.
Trade experts said this is the first time the box office collections for Bollywood films have crossed the ₹4,000 crore-mark in a calendar year.
In fact, 2019 was a game changer for actors like Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, and Ayushmann Khurrana.
Hrithik Roshan’s ‘War’ surpassed expectations; the film collected Rs 292 crore net and was the top grosser of 2019.
Shahid Kapoor’s ‘Kabir Singh’ (official remake of hit Telugu movie ‘Arjun Reddy’) collected a huge Rs 276.34 crore at the box-office catapulting Shahid Kapoor to one of the top paid stars in Bollywood.
‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ collected Rs 244 crore at the box-office. Vicky Kaushal also won the National Film Award for Best Actor.
Salman Khan’s ‘Bharat’ collected Rs 197 crore nett at the box-office.
Akshay Kumar’s ‘Mission Managal’, which was hailed by critics as well, collected Rs 192.67 crore nett at the box-office.
Prabhas’s Bollywood debut film ‘Saaho’ collected Rs 148.84 crore at the box-office, and really didn’t live up to the expectations.
Salman Khan’s ‘Dabangg 3’ has started well at the box office and collected almost Rs 125 at the box-office till now.
Akshay Kumar’s ‘Good Newwz’ managed to collects Rs 65 crore on the first weekend, and is receiving good word-of-mouth publicity.
Hollywood films like Avengers Endgame and Captain Marvel also contributed handsomely to the kitty, and has once again proved that Hollywood is emerging as a bigger player in the Indian market.
Reduction in movie tickets (due to lower taxes) also drew more people to cinema halls and helped the box office collections. Tax rate for movie tickets priced above ₹100 were cut from 28% to 18% helping boost revenue
