August Opens With One Film Taking Almost Everything, and Three Holdovers Deciding How to Exit

The board turns into August with a single release absorbing most of the country's screens. Spider-Man: Brand New Day sits on 109.95 crore net after two days and is tracking toward a weekend near 235 crore, which would be larger than the entire lifetime India run of every other film currently playing except Dhamaal 4 and Jana Nayagan.

Those two, plus The Odyssey, are now in the part of a run where the question is not how high but how gracefully. Dhamaal 4 finished July on 155.85 crore net as the month's biggest Hindi earner. Jana Nayagan is at 157.10 crore in nine days but posting its weakest dailies yet. The Odyssey has passed 135.38 crore and, judged properly on its 6,900 crore worldwide gross, is comfortably the biggest success of the four.

The next dated event is 14 August, when the Independence Day corridor brings Bhediya 2, Batwara 1947 and Awarapan 2 to the same weekend. Between now and then, Spider-Man has an almost clear fortnight, which is the kind of runway that turns a big opening into a very large lifetime.