Box Office Report Card 2026: Star power fails, only content passes; ‘Dhurandhar’ and ‘Border 2’ created a stir, Aamir’s production got a big blow!

With the end of the first half of the year 2026, the box office report card of Hindi cinema has come out. This year started with Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s grandson Agastya Nanda’s film ‘Ikkis’, and now the month of June is ending with the grand release of Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty, Disha Patani and Jacqueline Fernandez starrer multi-starrer film ‘Welcome to the Jungle’. If we look at the box office figures and trends of the last 6 months, one thing is clear that the mood of the Indian audience and their choice of watching films has completely changed. The dominance of ‘Pan India films’, which have been ruling the box office for the last few years, with huge budgets and only big superstars, now seems to be weakening. In the year 2026, only films with strong script, unique story and strong content will win the box office battle. This year, many big films released in theaters relying on star power and PR have failed, while brilliant stories have destroyed all the old records of earnings. Historical dominance of ‘Dhurandhar’ and ‘Border 2’: See the earnings of top 5 films here. By the end of June this year, the film ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ starring the trio of Ranveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt and Arjun Rampal has achieved the biggest and historical success at the box office. This film has set such earning records which will prove to be a milestone in the times to come. The list of top 5 highest-grossing Hindi movies of the year 2026 is as follows: Movie Name Box Office Collection (Total Earnings) 1. Dhurandhar: The Revenge ₹1,813.11 crore (Blockbuster) 2. Border 2 ₹464.50 crore 3. Bhoot Bangla ₹287.26 crore 4. Raja Shivaji ₹114.00 crore 5. O’ Romeo ₹95.60 crore Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh and Ahan Shetty’s patriotic sequel ‘Border 2’ was at second place in terms of earnings, which was very successful in drawing the audience to the theatres. At the same time, Akshay Kumar’s much awaited horror-comedy ‘Bhoot Bangla’ performed well at the third position. Trade experts bluntly: Just releasing films in theaters is not enough. Looking at these changing and shocking box office figures, the country’s famous trade analyst Taran Adarsh ​​says, "I wouldn’t say that this year has been great for the industry. Some big films worked and some proved to be a huge failure. If you look deeply, the success ratio of successful films has been very low. Franchise films like ‘Dhurandhar 2’, ‘Border 2’, ‘Mardaani 3’ and ‘Bhoot Bangla’ definitely proved to be hits, but their number is worth counting on fingers. This year, fewer films were released and even those that were released failed to attract a large section of the audience to the theatres. Many films were seen yearning for audiences in theatres." He clearly believes that now the audience wants such content, which can force them to leave their homes and buy tickets. At the same time, famous trade expert Atul Mohan also believes that the star system still exists in the film industry, but the real lifeline of a film is its content. According to him, the main reason why ‘Dhurandhar’ was praised all around this year was its strong story and excellent direction, whereas the weak content of big films of many famous stars was rejected by the audience on the very first day. Aamir Khan’s production got a shock, Salman’s cameo won hearts. This year another big upset was seen at the box office. This year, no film of Bollywood’s Mr. Perfectionist Aamir Khan was released on the big screen as an actor, but two films made under his home production banner ‘Happy Patel: Dangerous Detective’ and ‘Ek Din’ fell flat at the box office against expectations. Aamir Khan’s son Junaid Khan and South star Sai Pallavi had high expectations from the film ‘Ek Din’, but due to the weak script the film could not impress the audience. On the other hand, in the fourth biggest box office film ‘Raja Shivaji’, Bollywood’s Sultan Salman Khan was seen doing a explosive cameo (special role), which was liked very much by his fans. Due to the popularity of Hollywood films and discount offers from theatres, the acceptance of foreign cinema is also increasing rapidly among the Indian audience. This year, amidst the sluggishness of Bollywood, many Hollywood films did excellent business in the Indian market and created new records. These include big Hollywood films like ‘Obsession’, ‘Hail Mary’ (Project Hail Mary) and ‘Michael’, which made huge profits in the multiplexes of India. Nowadays, cinema owners and makers are giving attractive offers like ‘Buy 1 Get 1 Free’ and ‘Tuesday Discount’ (huge discount on tickets on Tuesday) to attract the audience. But this latest report card of the box office has proved that if the content of the film is not strong, then no discount or superstar can bring the audience to the theater chair.