Unlike last year, where niche and small budget films made big bucks with their box office collections, this year?s maximum winners turned out to be the bigwigs who had invested a good amount of money on production and marketing, with Dhoom 3, Chennai Express, Krrish 3 emerging at the top.
It started off with the Ranbir Kapoor ? Deepika Padukone starrer ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’, the COP (cost of production) of which was 45 crore. The film went on to earn 190 crore in the domestic market. Padukone?s first Rs 100 crore release in January this year was ‘Race 2’, that was made on a budget of 60 crore. Sanjay Leela Bhansali?s ‘Goliyon ki Rasleela Ram-leela’, made on an estimated budget of Rs 60 crore entered the big league, collecting Rs 110 crore in the domestic circuit. Farhan Akhtar?s portrayal of Milkha Singh in ‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’ earned both critical and audience acclaim, which helped the Rs 50 crore film collect Rs 102.50 crore in India.
Indra Kumar?s adult comedy ‘Grand Masti’ too joined the Rs 100 crore club and had a decent run. But it was Rohit Shetty?s Eid release ‘Chennai Express’ that turned out to be the record express of the year, crossing Rs 422 crore worldwide. Hrithik Roshan and Rakesh Roshan too struck gold with the third instalment of their popular superhero franchise, ‘Krrish’. The Rs 115 crore (estimate) film, ‘Krrish 3’ was the sole Diwali release this year and earned Rs 240.50 crore in the domestic market, thus becoming one of the biggest hits of 2013. But it was Aamir Khan who brought a sweet end to the year with the third installment of the ‘Dhoom’ franchise.
While ‘Dhoom 3 ‘ is still in its first week of release, it has already broken quite a few records by getting both the highest single day and opening day collections at Rs 36 crore. It is also the highest non-holiday grosser till date and has crossed the Rs 100 crore mark in the opening weekend (combining the collections of Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions). The film went on to break records in the international circuit as well, as it got the biggest opening ever in North America (USA and Canada) and United Kingdom by collecting US $1,100,000 and US $400,000 respectively.
