The biggest box office flop of 2023 earned only Rs 10,000 on a budget of Rs 33 crore, registering bigger loss than even Adipurush and Ganapath.
The year 2023 was a particularly good one for Indian films, Bollywood in particular. After the pandemic, regional films from the Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada film industries had done wonders at the box office in 2021 and 2022. But Bollywood had been found lacking. That changed in 2023 with blockbusters like Jawan, Pathaan, Animal, Gadar 2 among others. However, that does not mean that all Hindi films worked well at the box office. There were several failures too, but none as colossal as the film that reportedly sold only 50 tickets across India.
Bollywood’s biggest flop of 2023
Sannjoy Bhargv-directorial Panch Kriti Five Elements was released in theatres in August. The film, which starred Brijendra Kala along with an ensemble cast, hit the screens without much fanfare at a time when Gadar 2 and OMG 2 were already doing stellar business. Pretty soon, Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan released and took over the theatres. Sandwiched between these two releases, Panch Kriti failed to find many shows and reach the audiences.
According to data from Bollywood Hungama, Panch Kriti earned just Rs 10,000 net in its first week after which it was pulled off from theatres. As per trade sources, given an average ticket price of around Rs 200, the film is expected to have sold only around 50 tickets. The film’s makers claim that Panch Kriti did a business of Rs 35 crore but there is no verifiable data to back this claim.
Other big flops of 2023 that Panch Kriti ‘beat’
Panch Kriti was not the only major flop of 2023. The Ladykiller, which starred Arjun Kapoor and Bhumi Pednekar, was also a colossal failure at the box office, earning only Rs 1 lakh through limited screenings. The film was reportedly released incomplete by the producers in a bid to meet the OTT release requirements. Other big flops of the year included Ganapath (which made Rs 10 crore on a Rs 200 crore budget) and Adipurush (worldwide net of Rs 325 crore on a Rs 550 crore budget). While the likes of Ganapath and Adipurush lost more money, they were behind Panch Kriti’s abysmal 99.99% loss at the box office as it lost almost all of its Rs 33 crore budget.
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 "A still from Panch Kriti")
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