Hrithik Roshan, Jr NTR’s film no longer the lowest-grossing YRF Spy Universe entry, beats Ek Tha Tiger
War box office collection Day 7: Producer Aditya Chopra’s ambitious YRF Spy Universe kickstarted with the film War, with Kabir Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger and Ali Abbas Zafar’s Tiger Zinda Hai, starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, being retroactively included in the franchise. The series’ latest instalment is Ayan Mukerji’s War 2, starring Hrithik Roshan, Jr NTR, and Kiara Advani. Given its unimpressive trajectory at the domestic box office, War 2 was the lowest-grossing installment in the cinematic universe, despite the 13-year gap between it and Ek Tha Tiger.
Finally, on its seventh day of release, War 2 has surpassed the lifetime domestic earnings of Ek Tha Tiger, which collected Rs 198.78 crore. The next few installments of the YRF Spy Universe belong to the Rs 300 crore club; these include Ali Abbas Zafar’s Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), Manish Sharma’s Tiger 3 (2023), Siddharth Anand’s War (2019), and Pathaan (2023), starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone.
As per industry tracker Sacnilk, War 2 slipped further on Wednesday earning only Rs 5.5 crore across all three languages — the original Hindi version, and the dubbed Telugu and Tamil versions. This continued the film’s downward trajectory following Monday and Tuesday earnings of Rs 8.75 crore and Rs 9 crore, respectively. Its most drastic fall came on Monday, as compared to the Sunday earnings of Rs 32.65 crore, which in itself was a marginal dip from the Saturday earnings of Rs 33.25 crore.
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The highest single-day collection of War 2 was on Friday (day 2) on the occasion of Independence Day at Rs 57.85 crore, an improvement on its opening day collection of Rs 52 crore. However, its day 1 collection was even lower than that of its first part, which opened at Rs 53.35 crore five years ago. The total box office collection of War 2 in India now stands at Rs 199 crore.
In the process, War 2 has now beaten Akshay Kumar’s whodunit comedy Housefull 5 (Rs 198.41 crore) to become the third-highest-grossing Hindi film of this year. Even though it’s yet to cross the Rs 200 crore mark, it stands at the third position after Vicky Kaushal’s period action drama Chhaava (Rs 615.39 crore) and Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda’s romantic drama Saiyaara (Rs 332.85 crore), also backed Aditya Chopra’s Yash Raj Films.
War 2 is most likely to enter the Rs 200 crore club today. Since there are no Hindi releases this week, it has another week to regain momentum before it has to compete with Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor-starrer romantic comedy Param Sundari. It’s already facing stiff competition from fellow pan-India release, Lokesh Kanagaraj’s crime thriller Coolie, starring Rajinikanth.
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Hrithik Roshan and Ashutosh Rana reprise their roles from War in the sequel. Jr NTR, Kiara Advani, and Anil Kapoor are the new entrants. The next instalment in the YRF Spy Universe, Shiv Rawail’s Alpha, starring Alia Bhatt, Sharvari, and Bob Deol, is slated to release in cinemas this Chrmas on December 25.
