Jul 12, 2026 2:00pm IST
January-June 2026 Box Office: Not a Single ₹100 Crore Grosser, Yet Hollywood Enjoys One Of The Greatest First-Halves In India
It has been a milestone year so far for Indian cinema with the Hindi and Telugu industries contributing to the bulk of total collections. Hollywood, however, has emerged as the dark horse in the first half of 2026 by delivering box-office winners at regular intervals. English films have performed almost on par with 2025's first half (₹430 crore) by earning ₹421 crore in the first six months with 73 films.
What’s worked?
Unlike franchise films and sequels, movies with original concepts dominated at the box office this year. While “Obsession,” a low-budget psychological horror, emerged as the biggest surprise and highest grosser with ₹84 crore, “Project Hail Mary” (₹72 crore) and “Michael” (₹71 crore) also attracted great footfalls to become super-hits.
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“Devil Wears Prada 2” (₹30 crore) and “Lee Cronin's The Mummy” (₹25 crore) had decent outings. “Toy Story 5”, “Disclosure Day”, “The Sheep Detectives”, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie”, “GOAT” and “Marty Supreme” also managed to mark their presence with audience appreciation.
Bigger, Better, Grander Second-Half
Hollywood is expected to explode in the second half with big movies and stars arriving at the ticket windows. Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated epic flick “The Odyssey” featuring Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya and Charlize Theron arrives this Friday and is expected to be one of the biggest openers of the year.
July-end, the audience will have another treat with “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” the fourth film in the MCU Spider-Man film series following “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (2021).
Anne Hathaway’s “The End of Oak Street,” Jason Statham’s “Mutiny”, Ridley Scott-directorial “The Dog Stars,” Matthew McConaughey’s “The Rivals of Amziah King,” director Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil,” Ryan Reynolds’ “Mayday,” Tom Cruise’s dark comedy “Digger,” Kitao Sakurai’s “Street Fighter,” Anne Hathaway’s “Verity,” Jennifer Lawrence’s “The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” Dwayne Johnson’s “Jumanji: Open World” and director Robert Eggers’ “Werwulf” are all on the way, leading to year-end. December will see two of the biggest movies, “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Dune: Part Three” battling it out at the box office.
Note: Collections mentioned in the article are net figures
Source: Sacnilk
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