There are merely days for the year 2021 to end. Bollywood, which had almost two years of lull, after theatres were shut down as a part of the larger schemes of lock down and social isolation to combat the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, finally saw a spark of life with the release of Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, at the fag end of the year. Following the release of Sooryavanshi, the Indian box office has had a conflicting run, with a few films doing exceptionally well, while others fading away into oblivion.

So, what is the box office report of 2021?

For starters, the year 2021 has largely  been one for the various OTT platforms. These streaming services, with a majority of entertainment modes, including theatres, on shutdown mode, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent lockdown, was the major source of entertainment for people, providing a wide variety of content to choose from. Trade analysts have over time and again said that the OTT platforms have not only provided a variety, but has also made the audience spoilt for choices.

Film producer and trade analyst Girish Johar had addressed this issue in a series of tweets, stating how the OTT has changed the theatrical mindset of medium, small films, who are more prone to go the streaming platform way, predicting that new trends and dynamics will take shape.

Johar had further tweeted, “Cinemas need to URGENTLY & IMMEDIATELY address the tkt pricing issue, small medium films costing ₹300+ is a no go!  You have to lure the audiences back with much lower & affordable prices. Like OTT is giving “annual” plans at almost  cost of 1tkt price !”

In a separate tweet, Johar had further addressed the issue, writing, “Buy a high price move tkt, find movie below par…see the OTT add / their next offering on big cinema screen during the show, get lured at less than ½ tkt price ! … even if the add has a 2% strike rate, loss of cinema patron is almost permanent!!!”

However, having said that there were films, in various languages which released in theatres post the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and have received a good response.

Sooryavanshi, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, was the first Bollywood biggie to hit silver screens post the second wave and received fantastic response at the box office, earning Rs 195 crore at ticket windows.

Annaatthe, a Rajinikanth film too did good business after it released on Diwali, and managed to collect over Rs 200 crore at the worldwide box office. Directed by Siruthai Siva, the film had Rajnikanth and Keerthy Suresh playing siblings.

Meanwhile, Ahan Shetty’s debut venture as a hero, Tadap earned Rs 13.52 over the weekend of its release, while Antim: The Final Truth collected Rs 32.36 crore in two weeks of its release and John Abraham’s Satyamev Jayate 2, that released alongside Antim, raked in Rs 12.28 crore.

While the final film for the year 83 has managed to rake in around Rs 17 crore in two days of business, Allu Arjun’s Pushpa, which is still showing in theatres has done Rs 29.20 crore business in India till now. Meanwhile, Spider-Man: No Way Home has continued to impress viewers, the flm has collected a nett totak of Rs 154.82 crore at the India box office.

Film critic and trade analyst Akshaye Rathi sums it up, saying, “Box office in 2021 has been pretty sporadic.” He goes on to explain, “For most of the year, the cinemas were shut. But since the reopening, we have seen very encouraging signs where movies like Sooryavanshi, Spider-Man, a lot of Tamil and Telugu films that have done incredibly well. Ranveer Singh’s 83 looks like a great closing to this year.”

According to Rathi, “Films that are really worth the audience’s money have done extremely well and will continue to do so, because the kind of clutter that is coming the audience’s way in terms of variety of entertainment, whether it is in streaming, theatres or TV, is a lot. And thus for them to choose which ones they want to go to the theatres for, is quite a thing. So we really need to make sure to pull our socks up as the entertainment fraternity, and offer audiences their money’s worth.”