Rs 85 crore isn’t unprecedented for an Indian film in Japan. Previously, Prashanth Neel’s 2022 Kannada action thriller KGF: Chapter 2 has come close to that mark by earning Rs 70 crore during its Japan box office run. The highest grossing Indian film in Japan, however, is SS Rajamouli’s 2022 Telugu period epic RRR, which amassed Rs 150 crore in the country.

Animal vs Dhurandhar

Dhurandhar is estimated to easily cross the Rs 1000 crore mark at the worldwide box office, given its current trajectory. However, it’ll also drop on Netflix India at the start of February next year, allowing Animal a definite target to achieve if it plans to challenge Dhurandhar’s supremacy at the global box office.

Dhurandhar (Rs 607.50 crore) has already surpassed Animal’s domestic box office collection (Rs 553.87 crore). It’s also surpassed Amar Kaushik’s horror comedy Stree 2 (Rs 597.99 crore) from last year to become the highest grossing Hindi film of all time at the domestic box office. It’s behind only the Hindi dubbed version of Sukumar’s 2023 Telugu action thriller Pushpa 2: The Rule (Rs 812.14 crore).

While Animal benefitted from Vanga’s bold approach combined with Ranbir’s unadulterated performance, Dhurandhar takes advantage of Ranveer’s restraint, a solid ensemble cast boasting of Akshaye Khanna, R Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, and Sanjay Dutt, and Dhar combining his bold directorial leaps with nationalism rooted in historical incidents.

What’s next for Dhurandhar?

The next domestic box office target, Pushpa 2: The Rule Hindi, is quite a tall order. But worldwide, after beating Animal’s lifetime run, its next target now is also a tall one as all the other Indian grossers above it are Rs 1000 crore club members, including Nag Ashwin’s 2024 Telugu dystopian sci-fi drama Kalki 2898 AD (Rs 1042 crore), Siddharth Anand’s 2023 spy thriller Pathaan (Rs 1055 crore), Atlee’s 2023 action thriller Jawan (Rs 1160 crore), KGF: Chapter 2 (Rs 1215 crore), RRR (Rs 1230 crore), Pushpa 2: The Rule (Rs 1788 crore), and Nitesh Tiwari’s 2016 family sports drama Dangal (Rs 2070 crore).

In the process, Dhurandhar has already broken multiple records. These include the first Indian film to earn Rs 200 crore gross overseas this year and the first-ever Indian film to earn more than Rs 20 crore for 17 consecutive days at the domestic box office. Its sequel is all set to release in cinemas on March 19, 2026.

It’s a solid release window given India will be celebrating not only Eid, but also Ugadi and Gudi Padwa. Also, unlike the first part, Dhurandhar part 2 will release in multiple languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. Most of the recent highest grossers of India, both domestically and overseas, have been similar pan-India films released in multiple languages.

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Both parts of Dhurandhar have been made on a reported budget of Rs 250 crore. Thus, it’s safe to say the film has already more than recovered its costs through the domestic box office run of just its first part. Anything earned through the second part will be bonus. The biggest advantage for the second part is the groundbreaking success of the first part itself, which will also drop on Netflix India over a month before the sequel hits the cinemas next year.