India's top earning star from 2023 earned more at the box office than the entire film industries in Tamil and Telugu, and accounted for one-third of Bollywood's earnings.
2023 was a renaissance year for Shah Rukh Khan. The actor returned to the big screen for the first time since 2018 and had three releases. If anyone had doubted his superstardom before the year, all such doubts were laid to rest by the end of 2023 as all three films were resounding successes. The actor gave two all-time blockbusters in Pathaan and Jawan and his latest release Dunki is on its way of becoming a hit as well.
Just how grand Shah Rukh Khan’s year was
Shah Rukh was easily the top star of the country in 2023. His first film Pathaan earned Rs 543 crore net in India and Rs 1050 crore gross worldwide. These remained Bollywood records until broken by SRK himself with Jawan in September, which netted Rs 640 crore in India and grossed Rs 1157 crore worldwide. The combined Rs 2200 crore gross had made Shah Rukh the highest-grossing Indian star in a year already by October. But the actor had more in store as his final release of the year – Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki – has netted Rs 200 crore in India and grossed over Rs 400 crore worldwide. This gives Shah Rukh a combined gross of Rs 2600 crore in 2023, with a combined net domestic collection of almost Rs 1400 crore.
Among actors, this was the highest in the year, eclipsing Ranbir Kapoor's Rs 1100 crore and Thalapathy Vijay's Rs 900 crore worldwide grosses. Even among producers, Aditya Chopra lacked behind Shah Rukh with a haul of around Rs 1500 crore globally.
How Shah Rukh beat Tamil and Telugu film industries single-handedly
Shah Rukh’s combined worldwide gross of Rs 2600 crore is actually higher than the total earnings of all Tamil and Telugu films (separately, not combined) released in 2023. As per data available on trade tracker Sacnilk, Tamil films earned Rs 2160 crore in their original language worldwide last year. Telugu films’ gross in original language (minus dubs) was around Rs 2300 crore. Shah Rukh’s Rs 2600-crore haul had over Rs 2450 crore collection in Hindi, with the rest coming from dubbed versions of Pathaan and Jawan.
Shah Rukh’s contribution to Bollywood resurgence
As per Sacnilk, Bollywood films earned Rs 4617 crore net in 2023, and around Rs 2124 crore gross overseas. Of this, Shah Rukh’s films contributed a whopping 52% of the overseas gross and 31% of the domestic net. This means that the actor’s films accounted for one-third of Bollywood’s domestic earnings and over half of overseas hauls. That is unprecedented dominance from one star in a single calendar year. Interestingly, Shah Rukh (so far) does not have a release lined up for 2024 but fans would hope the superstar returns to the silver screen just as strongly as he did in 2023.
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 "A still from Pathaan")
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