Just 5 months in 2024 have passed, and there has been a string of hits and flops this year. Only three films have been able to make it to the 100-crore club this year. This short list includes names like Fighter, HanuMan, and Shaitaan. However, only Shaitaan and HanuMan can be said as real hits, as Fighter was made on a big budget of Rs. 250 crores and was able to earn only ₹237.44 crore in India. 

Yes! The overseas collection of Fighter would make it to the hit films list. But several Bollywood releases like Bade Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff‘s Miyan Chote Miyan, Ajay Devgn’s Maidaan, and Sidharth Malhotra‘s Yodha among others were unable to do wonders at the box office. Most of these films are still running in theatres but are unable to even recover their making cost. Why have these films failed at the box office? Why did such big stars fail at pulling back audiences in the theatres? 

Film expert raises points for big budget films failing at box office

For the unversed, a film is said to be a hit when it can earn its making cost and it is said to be a blockbuster when it earns nearly as double its cost. But what happens when a lead actor charges as much as the film costs in its making? Well, the recent box office numbers are an answer to such questions. Suchin Mehrotra, a film critic took to his X profile to count the reasons for such big budget failures. 

In one of his tweets, Mehrotra wrote that ‘Indian producers have been called out for setting a dangerous trend of offering buy-one-get-one ticket schemes to the audience and also for breeding and empowering paid trade influencers, which have cast a massive credibility cloud on the industry.’ He further elaborated on the matter in a series of tweets and explained how unjustified demands of actors are leading to their films failing at the box office. 

“In the good old days, the entourage cost was taken care of by the stars themselves. So, whatever their fees, a percentage of that they would themselves pay to their talent & staff. Now, if a star quotes Rs 25 cr, that amount is exclusively for them, with an additional cost of staff. The vanity has a cost of Rs 50,000 per day. Now a vanity comes with a generator, and a driver, so that cost is also there. Nowadays actors also demand food trucks, where a designated chef will cook for them. So that cost is again bourn by the producers. The overhead cost of a star amounts to Rs 20-22 lakhs per day. If a film is shot for 70 days, the overhead cost only for the male and female star would be around Rs 15-20 cr, which doesn’t even reflect anywhere on the screen. There is no end to stories of actors putting forth their demands. It can range from a star insisting on having a burger delivered to the middle of a jungle, to a star asking his driver to drive to the city he is flying to in advance because he prefers to travel only in his car,” read his tweets. 

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