Welcome To The Jungle<\/strong> \u2014 \u20b980 crore (in five days of it’s release)<\/p>\nOne of the biggest surprises of the year has been Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga. Despite a modest opening, strong word of mouth helped the film steadily gain momentum and move towards hit status.<\/p>\n
Reflecting on the film’s journey, Imtiaz had earlier told us, “It’s the audience who has embraced the film. Somewhere, the industry had started saying ki ‘Arre kuchh bhi halka phulka de do audience ko, chal jaayega, emotional mat do’. But the people proved this wrong.”<\/p>\n
Regional cinema, too, delivered a major success story. Riteish Deshmukh\u2019s Raja Shivaji became the highest-grossing Marathi film ever, highlighting the growing strength of regional industries. \u201cThe idea that even in the Marathi industry, these kind of figures that we are seeing\u2026 is just a beginning. We hope that more and more films come and break this record and make newer records because unless records are broken commercially, the industry doesn\u2019t stand,\u201d says Deshmukh.<\/p>\n
What didn’t<\/p>\n
Yet, not every well-reviewed film translated into ticket sales. Vishal Bhardwaj’s O’Romeo, Ananya Panday and Lakshya’s Chand Mera Dil, Anurag Kashyap’s Bandar and Kangana Ranaut’s Bharat Bhagya Vidhaata failed to generate the expected box-office momentum despite positive reviews and strong subjects.<\/p>\n
THE MISSES<\/p>\n
O\u2019Romeo <\/strong>\u2014 \u20b960 crore<\/p>\nChand Mera Dil<\/strong> \u2014 \u20b928 crore<\/p>\nAssi <\/strong>\u2014 \u20b910 crore<\/p>\nBharat Bhhagya Viddhaata<\/strong> \u2014 \u20b96.6 crore<\/p>\nEk Din <\/strong>\u2014 \u20b93.7 crore<\/p>\nAVERAGE PERFORMERS<\/p>\n
Cocktail 2<\/strong> \u2014 \u20b983 crore (still running)<\/p>\nHai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai <\/strong>\u2014 \u20b950 crore<\/p>\nPati, Patni Aur Woh Do <\/strong>\u2014 \u20b948 crore<\/p>\nMardaani 3<\/strong> \u2014 \u20b950 crore<\/p>\nTrade analyst Atul Mohan believes financial discipline is becoming just as important as content in determining a film’s fate. “The first half has been so far, so good. Like Akshay Kumar and Ranveer Singh, actors need to shoulder the responsibility of a film by reducing upfront fees and opting for backend profits,” he says.<\/p>\n
The message from the first half of 2026 is clear: audiences are showing up for good stories, regardless of genre or budget. But they are also more selective than ever, making strong content and positive word of mouth Bollywood’s safest bets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first half of 2026 has delivered a much-needed boost to the film industry, with audiences backing films…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[263],"tags":[6963,18,117,19,52036,17,195749,327,3825,93104,78986],"class_list":["post-564905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-akshay-kumar","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-imtiaz-ali","tag-ireland","tag-main-vaapas-aaunga","tag-movies","tag-ranveer-singh","tag-vedang-raina","tag-welcome-to-the-jungle"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116849683723947090","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Stills](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/collage2_1782971135837_1782971161640_0be07cd6-88e2-42a4-9473-ab1514f932bb.jpg\" "\\"Stills")
Stills from Main Vaapas Aaunga, Dhurandhar The Revenge and Welcome To The JungleWhat worked<\/p>\n