Year Ender 2023: Between Dunki vs Salaar, Barbenhemier, and Oh My Gadar, how box office 'clash' saw its death this year

If I was to take a shot every time I have read the phrase ‘box office clash’ in the last week, my liver would be begging for mercy in half an hour. Dunki and Salaar releasing on the same weekend brought out the worst in two superstars’ fandoms, with mudslinging, trolling, and lots of unfunny memes from both sides (granted, a few funny ones too). But in the end, despite mixed reviews, both films found their audience. As we read this, Salaar is hurtling towards Rs 400 crore at the box office and Dunki has crossed Rs 250 crore too. If there was a clash, it seems neither side has lost. And this wasn’t the first time it happened this year. Be it in India or Hollywood, even as the press cried the ‘c-word’, two films releasing over the same weekend worked, sometimes while fighting, mostly while cross-promoting.

The Barbenheimer model of bhaichara

You cannot reflect on the box office clashes of 2023 and not talk about Barbie and Oppenheimer’s shared release in July. There can’t be two films more removed from each other in theme, content, and aesthetic. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was all pink – a smart but chic take on the bestselling children’s doll and consumerism. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was all monochrome – a long, slightly dull but brilliant biopic of the creator of the atomic bomb.

The ‘Barbenheimer’ memes began months before the films were to release and reached a crescendo weeks before it. Even the two tech-unsavvy leads of the films – Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy – acknowledged them. The directors spoke in support of each other’s films. The cross-promotion and pop culture elevation worked as both films succeeded. Barbie is the year’ highest-grossing film with $1.4 billion in worldwide gross, while Oppenheimer sits at the third spot with its $954 million haul. The tone was set!

Oh My Gadar and Sanimal try to replicate the feeling back home

I agree that the portmanteaus do not quite appear as slick as Barbenheimer but we will make do with what we get. India is a country that famously likes pitting people and things against each other even if they are on the same side (just google Virat vs Rohit memes if you don’t believe me). So for Barbenheimer to be replicated her, it needed to take some doing. The first hint that this could happen came just four weeks later, on August 18. Two big films released – Sunny Deol and Anil Sharma’s grand comeback in Gadar 2, and Akshay Kumar and Pankaj Tripathi’s OMG 2. Once again, you had two diverse films – an actioner and a social drama – where each team was cordial to the other. And the end result was the same. Gadar 2 broke box office records, briefly becoming the highest-grossing Hindi film in India. OMG 2 also became, for a short while, the highest grossing A-rated Hindi film.

In December, the third such clash also saw a great sense of cordial vibes from each side. Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s hyperviolent revenge drama Animal released on the same day as Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Manekshaw biopic Sam Bahadur. In almost a carbon copy of the Gadar 2-OMG 2 scenario, the former broke records, threatening to enter the 1000-crore club, while the latter was profitable too, grossing over Rs 100 crore.

Industry insiders see this as a sign of the ‘clash’ becoming immaterial. OMG 2 director Amit Rai says, “I see this as a good sign. It’s not as if the audience has come just now. They were always coming to the theatre. If your content is good, then the clash does not matter. They come and watch your film and that is how the audience blesses you.”

Dunki vs Salaar saw both films ‘win’ despite ugliness

The Dunki-Salaar clash was the one true clash of the year. There was hardly anything cordial apart from a handful of statements from the stars. First, the fan wars began. Then, the whole pre-release drama saw distributors and exhibitors taking sides with threats of withdrawing release and what not. In the end, as the films released and seemed to work too, more mudslinging happened with both sets of fans accusing the other side of ‘fabricating’ box office figures. But despite all the ugliness, the films are working. The critics may not have loved either but the fans are. And in the end, isn’t that all that matters?

Trade experts say the key to that is being diverse. In all these examples, both films worked when the two films were different enough to have very diverse target audiences. Trade analyst Ramesh Bala says, “The only way two films like Dunki and Salaar – with two superstars – can work despite the clash is because they are very different films. One is a mass entertainer and one is a content-based social film. Audience need not always be divided.”

That is, perhaps, the biggest lesson for filmmakers in 2023. Content, if good, is invariably finding its way to the audiences. If a film as unheralded as 12th Fail can be a hit, it just goes to show there is nothing called a big film or small film or clash, if approached correctly.