The box office is throwing up two very different success stories, and filmmaker believes the industry should pay closer attention.
Sinha has highlighted the theatrical performances of The Movie and , two films that arrived with vastly different circumstances but have both managed to attract audiences. While Mirzapur The Movie comes backed by an established streaming franchise, Hanuman Ansh began its theatrical run with a modest opening and a reported budget of just ₹2 crore.
Sharing his thoughts on X, Sinha congratulated the Mirzapur team and pointed to what he believes could be a larger trend.
“Congratulations Team Mirzapur!!! Well done.
The Box Office is telling us all a story if we watch carefully. Mirzapur and Hanuman Ansh are not freak hits. It is easy to draw simplistic conclusions and dangerous too.”
His comments come as both films continue to generate attention for their box-office performances.
Hanuman Ansh had little indication of the success that was to follow when it opened in theatres. The film earned just ₹10 lakh on its first day but began gaining momentum after spending three weeks in cinemas.
By its 30th day, the film had collected ₹94 crore at the Indian box office and was on course to cross ₹100 crore by Sunday.
Its fourth weekend proved particularly significant, with the film earning ₹28 crore net in India. It subsequently held up on Monday before recording another notable jump on Tuesday.
On its 26th day, Hanuman Ansh registered a 54 per cent increase in collections and earned ₹8.50 crore net in India.
That figure became particularly striking because Toxic A FairyTale for GrownUps collected ₹8.20 crore on the same day. The latter had a significantly wider theatrical footprint, running in five languages and on more than 1,500 additional screens compared with Hanuman Ansh.
The trajectory of Mirzapur The Movie has been markedly different. The film entered theatres with the existing popularity of the Amazon Prime Video series behind it and recorded ₹24.75 crore on its opening day in India.
The spinoff, led by Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu and Jitendra Kumar, delivered one of Bollywood’s biggest openings for a non-star-led film.
Its Friday numbers also put it ahead of recent sleeper successes including Saiyaara, which opened at ₹22 crore, and Awarapan 2, which recorded ₹21.50 crore.
The film expands the Mirzapur universe while bringing back several familiar faces. Abhishek Banerjee, Rasika Dugal, Sheeba Chadha, Rajesh Tailang, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Harshita Shekhar Gaur and Shweta Tripathi reprise their roles from the series. Jitendra Kumar plays Bablu Pandit, taking over the character from Vikrant Massey, while Ravi Kishan appears in a new role.
The performances of the two films offer contrasting examples of how theatrical success can unfold. Mirzapur The Movie converted an established franchise’s popularity into a strong opening, while Hanuman Ansh built its momentum gradually after starting with relatively low numbers.
Sinha, whose filmography includes Bheed, Thappad, Anek, Mulk and Assi, has urged the industry not to reduce such performances to a simple explanation.
His argument is that the numbers themselves may be pointing towards something worth examining — rather than being dismissed as isolated or unexpected box-office anomalies.
