The Sleeper Sequel Quietly Rewriting The Box Office Record Books

I did not have 'Indian action franchise smashes North American box office' on my bingo card for spring, but here we are. 'Dhurandhar: The Revenge', the second part of Aditya Dhar's high-octane saga, is absolutely torching the North American records for Indian cinema—despite running nearly four hours and mixing fact and fiction in ways that have ruffled a few feathers.

The Sequel That Wasn't Supposed to Be… a Sequel

First off, some quick context for those not fluent in Bollywood release schedule shenanigans: this movie was supposed to be a single film. But between the pile of footage they shot and a story that apparently couldn't be contained, the filmmakers split it into two parts. Good call, as it turns out, because now the 'Dhurandhar' duology is cleaning up at the box office.

The first film swept into theaters on December 5, 2025. Barely three months later, on March 19, out came 'Dhurandhar: The Revenge'—clocking in at a whopping 3 hours and 50 minutes. (Seriously, hope you like popcorn and bathroom planning.) Ranveer Singh stars as the conflicted covert operative at the heart of the story, which, yes, has caused some hand-wringing for its liberal blending of real historical events with pure fiction. If you like your spy thrillers with a side of controversy, you’re in luck.

How the Numbers Stack Up

Let's get to the business end, because that’s where things get wild. After just two weeks in theaters, here’s what the box office looks like as of March 31, according to Box Office Mojo:

• Worldwide gross: $147 million
• North America (aka 'domestic' in Hollywood speak): $22.6 million
• International (outside the US/Canada): $124.8 million
• Of that, India alone brought in $110 million
• UK: $4.4 million, Australia: $4.1 million, Germany: $1 million

To put this into perspective, the previous North American record for an Indian movie was 'Baahubali 2: The Conclusion' with $20.2 million back in 2017. 'Dhurandhar: The Revenge' blew past that in less than a fortnight—practically overnight by box office standards.

Costs, Profits, and Some Unexpected Math

Both movies together reportedly cost around $27 million to make (that’s about 250 crore rupees in local money). Now, if you apply the standard 'multiply budget by 2.5' formula to figure out a break-even point for a foreign film, they'd need to earn about $68 million to be in the black.

They were way past that even before the sequel started printing money. The first movie alone hit $137 million worldwide. The second film’s takings are just pure profit at this point—and with numbers like these after only two weeks, there’s no telling how high the ceiling is.

Why Is This Happening?

Honestly, nobody saw this coming. Projections from BoxOfficeTheory earlier this month were pretty modest: analysts expected an opening in the $2-5 million range domestically, maybe scraping $15 million overall after a few weeks. But things picked up fast—just days before the release, estimates doubled to a $6-10M opener and a possible $25M total run. Even that undershot reality.

Here's how opening weekend actually went down:

'Dhurandhar: The Revenge' pulled in just over $10 million from 987 screens during its real opening weekend in North America. If you stretch the timeline to include the first five days, it bagged $14 million. For a Bollywood sequel, competing directly with big studio fare like 'Project Hail Mary' and 'Ready or Not 2: Here I Come', that's wild. Its worldwide opening week hit $56 million (for comparison's sake, 'Project Hail Mary' started at $141 million, but that's a Hollywood tentpole).

Critics Don't Love It, But Fans Definitely Do

Now, don't expect glowing reviews from critics. As of now, the film sits at just 40% on the Tomatometer, with only 15 reviews counted. Fans, however, are on the opposite end of the spectrum, giving it a 95% Popcornmeter score. So it's one of those quintessential cases where the audience just wants something different than the critics. (Might help that the first film built a vocal, loyal fanbase.)

'It was cheaper to make than you'd ever guess—and now it's taking a victory lap that nobody really saw coming.'

The real masterstroke here might be in how quickly the sequel followed the first film. Instead of forcing fans to wait years and risk a loss of momentum, the back-to-back release schedule kept buzz high and ticket sales rolling in. Whether that model starts a new trend, we'll see—but for now, 'Dhurandhar: The Revenge' is blowing the doors off global expectations, especially stateside.