Summary

The Indian movies
Crew
and
Tillu Square
have set a 2024 box office record.
The movies will be the first Indian releases to chart simultaneously on the domestic Top 10 in 2024.
This record was only hit one time throughout the entirety of 2023.

The Indian movies Crew and Tillu Square have pulled off a rare record at the domestic box office for the first time in 2024. Crew, a Bollywood movie about a trio of women who work for an airline finding themselves in an impossible situation, stars Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Kriti Sanon. Tillu Square is a Telugu-language movie that is a sequel to 2022’s DJ Tillu, featuring Siddhu Jonnalagadda reprising his role as wannabe DJ Bala Gangadhar Tilak.

Per Deadline, Crew is projected to take in an opening weekend 3-day total of $1.4 million at the domestic box office, landing a spot in the domestic Top 10. Tillu Square is performing even better, with an estimated take of $2.5 million that should land it at No. 6 for the weekend. The movies both landing in the Top 10 alongside major Hollywood blockbuster titles including Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire marks the first time that two Indian titles have charted simultaneously at the domestic box office so far in 2024.

How Tillu Square And Crew’s Record Compares To 2023 Indian Movie Successes
Indian Movies Are Gaining Steam At The Domestic Box Office

The success of Crew and Tillu Square comes at a time when Indian movies have found increasingly wide audiences in North America. This trend was solidified in 2022 when the movie RRR, a Telugu-language title, became the third highest-grossing Indian movie of all time, going on to win an Oscar for Best Original Song. Since then, four more new releases have joined the chart of the Top 10 highest-grossing Indian movies of all time, namely 2022’s KGF: Chapter 2 at No. 4, and the 2023 titles Jawan at No. 5, Pathaan at No. 6, and Animal at No. 8.

The
RRR
song “Naatu Naatu,” which is performed during a pivotal dance battle, is the track that won the movie its Oscar.

Despite the preponderance of Indian hits throughout 2023, that year featured only one instance of two Indian movies simultaneously charting in the Top 10. That was the weekend of December 22 through 24, when Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire opened at No. 5 with $5.6 million and Shah Rukh Khan’s Dunki opened at No. 9 with $2.7 million. The following weekend, both titles were swept off the chart with Salaar falling to No. 17 and Dunki falling to No. 15 in the wake of Christmas Day releases including The Boys in the Boat, The Color Purple, and Ferrari.

It remains to be seen if any 2024 Bollywood movies or Indian movies in general can match the combined strength of Crew and Tillu Square and give the year another double weekend. This is entirely within the realm of possibility, as the 2023 Hollywood strikes led to quite a few titles being delayed to 2025 as writers and actors fought for fair pay. However, future Indian titles will still have to contend with major upcoming blockbusters including Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Deadpool & Wolverine, and Despicable Me 4.

Source: Deadline