On Independence Day weekend in 2024, Maddock Films’ ‘Stree 2,’ starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor, stormed theatres and shattered records, earning over 625 crore at the box office. This was followed by ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ (283.80 crore) and Rohit Shetty’s ‘Singham Again’ (268.35 crore) during Diwali. And then came the real game-changer, ‘Pushpa 2: The Rule,’ in December, which rewrote box office history by grossing 715.75 crore in Hindi alone, making it the highest-grossing Hindi film ever.
These four sequels together accounted for more than 50% of the total Hindi box office earnings last year. Their commercial victory fueled a pervasive herd mentality among Bollywood producers, convincing them that sequels and franchise films were the safest bets to lure audiences into cinemas. As a result, many producers started aggressively pursuing sequel projects, often even to those films whose stories were clearly complete in their first outings.
But 2025 has flipped that narrative on its head. If the box office this year —and especially in August — has proven anything, it’s that sequels are not a surefire success formula, With the exception of Ajay Devgn’s ‘Raid 2,’ which was a worthy follow-up to the 2018 thriller, every other sequel released so far this year has stumbled or collapsed at the ticket windows. To put it bluntly, only one sequel has achieved commercial success in 2025.
August further proved that the sequel model guarantees no hits unless executed with strong storytelling and meticulous packaging. Three were released within the month, and all were resounding failures. Ajay Devgn and Mrunal Thakur’s ‘Son of Sardaar 2’ and Siddhant Chaturvedi and Triptii Dimri’s ‘Dhadak 2’ — neither had any real narrative connection to their original films — were released on August 1, and both bombed. While ‘Dhadak 2’ garnered some praise from a section of audiences and critics, Ajay’s Sardaar-da-charisma was rejected universally. Made on an estimated budget of over 125 crore, ‘SOS 2’ failed to collect even 50 crore at the box office, marking one of the biggest flops of Ajay’s career. (Ironically, Ajay delivered another big box office flop on the same weekend last year, when his and Tabu’s ‘Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha’ barely survived for a weekend, managing just 10 crore at the box office.)
However, the biggest shocker came on August 14, as what was considered to be the biggest Bollywood film of the year turned out to be a massive disappointment. Mounted on a budget of approximately 350 crore, ‘War 2’ seemed like a sure-shot blockbuster on paper. It had everything in its favor — it was the sequel to a blockbuster action film, with Hrithik Roshan reprising his magnetic spy role as Kabir Dhaliwal, Telugu superstar Jr. NTR starred in the parallel lead, and it was a part of Yash Raj Films' expansive Spy Universe. Yet, ‘War 2’ flopped disastrously.
Audiences just didn’t connect with the story, found grandiose action sequences hollow and unsubstantial, and heavily criticized the entire template of the film, which felt like a tired rehash of previous YRF spy offerings. Aditya Chopra’s reliance on a dated formula for his spy thrillers is not working anymore for today’s audience, who now access global cinema via OTT platforms. They signaled their displeasure with Chopra’s franchise formula with ‘Tiger 3’ in 2023, which underperformed despite Salman Khan’s presence. With ‘War 2,’ the frustration boiled over, and audiences publicly decried flaws in Chopra’s vaunted Spy Universe.
As of now, ‘War 2’ is struggling to touch even the 200 crore mark at the Indian box office, and with a nearly 80% drop witnessed in the second week, it has almost ended its theatrical run, proving to be a substantial financial loss for YRF, which very recently delivered a 300 crore plus blockbuster with ‘Saiyaara,’ a Mohit Suri musical romance featuring newcomers Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda. For context, ‘War’ (2019) collected 318 crores in India and 475 crores worldwide, whereas ‘War 2’ currently stands at 180 crores at the domestic box office and nearly 300 crores worldwide — far short of its predecessor.
Akshay Kumar also came up with two sequels, and neither of them emerged as box office victories. Karan Johar's last-minute decision to rebrand Akshay's C. Shankaran Nair biopic as ‘Kesari Chapter 2’ — tying it to the 2019 historical drama —id boost its visibility, but the film didn't go beyond 94 crore, marking another box office setback for Dharma Productions, which has been struggling to find commercial success of late. Similarly, ‘Housefull 5,’ marketed as the biggest installment of the comedy franchise, was also a resounding dud. The Sajid Nadiadwala production lacked genuine humour and tried to mislead audiences with dual versions that differed only in the antagonist. On a 250-crore budget, it collected just 160 crores, continuing Nadiadwala’s flop streak.
The consecutive failures of sequel films, however, don't mean that sequels are dead. Audiences remain drawn to familiar IPs, but only when the storytelling feels fresh and engaging. When producers chase trends instead of crafting quality narratives, the results are almost always disastrous. Those films flopped because they were compromised on quality and overly relied on brand recognition. Instead of thriving on branding alone, if the makers prioritize robust storytelling and polished execution, the sequel films can deliver historic numbers, as evidenced by the success of ‘Stree 2’ and ‘Pushpa 2.’
The coming months will test this theory further. Tiger Shroff's ‘Baaghi 4’ releases this Friday, aiming to avoid the fate of its predecessor, which came and went without making much noise. Akshay and Ajay also have one more sequel coming up each: ‘Jolly LLB 3’ on September 19 and ‘De De Pyaar De 2’ on November 14. Both films are continuations of their previous parts and are viewed as potential hits. ‘Kantara Chapter 1,’ a prequel to the 2022 Kannada mythological actioner, which releases on Gandhi Jayanti weekend, is also highly anticipated among audiences. Whether these films can reverse the sequel slump will only become clear upon their release, but let’s hope there are fewer disappointments hereon.
