Year Ender 2024: Gadar 2 in 2023 & Stree 2 in 2024, How Mid-Budget Films Beat Big-Budget Movies and Changed Box Office Dynamics

Year Ender 2024 - Mid-Budget Movies Changing Box Office Dynamics

If we reflect on films made in the post-Gadar (2001) era, which can be referred to as the multiplex era (mostly after 2003-2004), we can notice a pattern among the huge box office hits. All the record-breaking hits have either been big-budget movies or action event films (including franchises). However, last year, Gadar 2 changed that dynamic, and this year, Stree 2 did exactly the same.

The Sunny Deol-starrer was made on a budget of Rs. 70 crore and earned Rs. 515 crore nett at the domestic box office, which was bigger than Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan, which cost around Rs. 300 crore plus to produce and minted Rs. 512 crore nett at the ticket windows (with higher numbers worldwide, of course). Stree 2's production cost was above Rs. 120 crore, and the film earned a record-shattering total of Rs. 581 crore, which is larger than other big-budget movies like Jawan, Animal, Fighter, BMCM, or any other recent film you can name.

In 2024, Amar Kaushik's Stree 2 is the only BLOCKBUSTER we have, and needless to say, it’s a mid-budget movie. All high-budget films failed to achieve what Stree 2 did. Similarly, Gadar 2 was the biggest HIT of 2023 (in terms of footfalls, despite the clash), and even that film didn’t have a big budget. All the other blockbusters, such as Pathaan, Jawan, and Animal, had much larger budgets—often double or triple that of Gadar 2—but still, Gadar 2 ended up being a bigger HIT. Stree 2 repeated the same box office phenomenon this year, setting a new path for mid-budget movies that rarely make it to the ranks of record grossers.

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In the last two decades, no mid-budget movie has been able to become a record grosser. From Ghajini to 3 Idiots, Chennai Express, Dhoom 3, PK, Dangal, Baahubali 2, Pathaan, Jawan, and the recent smash hit Pushpa 2, they have all had big budgets. This has created a notion in the industry that mid-budget movies cannot defeat big-budget ones. However, thankfully, Gadar 2 and Stree 2 have come along to break that myth. It sends a good message to the industry: we don't need big stars and budgets if we have strong content to provide for audiences. Additionally, the profits from a mid-budget movie are always higher than those from a big-budget movie, and the fear of losing money if the film flops is lesser for lower-budget films. Hopefully, our producers learn from these movies and explore different methods of filmmaking rather than relying too much on budgets and stars. CONTENT is KING, and it shall remain so; only then will we be able to enjoy cinema in its truest form.

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