‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ Becomes Highest Grossing Indian Film Ever in U.S.
While “Project Hail Mary” is reigning over the box office, another film has quietly set a new record for Indian films in North America. “Quietly” is an ironic term here, because the film is one of the most intense, guns-blazing action films you’ll see anywhere this year: “Dhurandhar: The Revenge.”
Many moviegoers might not have heard of “Dhurandhar: The Revenge,” especially considering that it was released in only 987 locations in North America. But for theaters in the U.S. and Canada that serve Indian immigrant communities, it has been as hot a ticket over the last two weekends as “Project Hail Mary,” grossing $22.7 million over 10 days and becoming the highest grossing Indian film ever in North America.
For the past nine years, that record has belonged to “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion,” a mythical epic from “RRR” director S.S. Rajamouli that grossed $22 million in the spring of 2017 from 425 screens. Like that film “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” is the second half of a duology which follows Hamza, a counterterrorist operative who is sent into Pakistan to disrupt terrorist plots in Karachi’s criminal underworld.
While critics have given the film weak reviews for its over-the-top gunfights and nationalistic tone — the film is based around the geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan — it has become a massive hit both in its native country and overseas, crossing $143 million worldwide after just two weekends in theaters and putting itself on pace to pass the $166 million total of “RRR” in 2022.
While Crunchyroll and GKids’ anime films have made headlines as breakout overseas imports that boost an inconsistent specialty market, “Dhurandhar” shows how Indian cinema has gained a foothold over the past decade with diaspora communities.
The American audience for films in Hindi, Telugu and other Indian languages isn’t large enough to support a wide release, but theaters in areas with a heavy Indian immigrant population will regularly see strong turnout with repeat viewings for such offerings, enough to make Indian imports part of the core business model for those cinemas.
Later this week, “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” will become only the tenth non-English film to gross more than $25 million in the U.S., joining an elite club of international films that includes “Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon,” “Godzilla Minus One,” “The Boy and the Heron,” and “Amelie.”
But it is possible that it may not be the only Indian film in that club for long. In April 2027, S.S. Rajamouli’s “Varanasi” will be hitting theaters as one of the first Indian films to get the “Filmed for Imax” label and with an expected global marketing campaign. “Varanasi” producer Shobu Yarlagadda, who was also a producer on “Baahubali 2,” congratulated the “Dhurandhar” team on the new North American record.
“Yesterday I watched ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ and needless to say I loved it and thoroughly enjoyed the film! Happy to see it breaking all the records and setting new box office benchmarks in India and worldwide! Congratulations to the entire team!” he wrote.
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