2019: A Slow Year for Pakistani Box Office
2019 was quite a slow year for the Pakistani box office as the movie makers failed to leave a big mark and cinema-goers became uninterested in the local cinema. Despite that the year upheld ban of Indian films; what was predicted as a big year for Pakistani cinema failed to give much of a fruitful result.
To sum it up, this year the Pakistani box office saw an exponential decline of 35% in its annual revenue compared to 2018 which holds some big releases to its name. Thus 2019 comes to an end with not much to local cinema’s credit.
As per Box Office Detail, the year’s expected peak season Eid Ul Azha was also slow in terms of business as top 2 releases on the occasion, Superstar and Paray Hut Love are closing in with a take of Rs240 million each and hold the 1st and 2nd spot on the box office charts.
Coming in third is Wrong No. 2 with a total of Rs215 million as per unofficial numbers. Whereas Chhalawa (Rs180 million) and SherDil (Rs130 million) round off with 4th and 5th spot respectively.
Meera starrer Baaji racked in Rs120 million to secure 6th spot, Heer Maan Ja with Rs80 million+ stands on 7th position and Laal Kabootar with a total business of Rs32 million finished at 8th spot.
2019 was, unfortunately, the first time since 2014 that no film managed to hit Rs250 million mark. This was also the year that Eid Ul Azha did not bring in a billion rupees in business and accumulated income of top five films barely managed to hit billion rupees mark.
All in all a gloomy year for Pakistani cinema as the final numbers reflect. However, with big names like Humayun Saeed and Fahad Mustafa expected to feature next year, we are keeping our Hope’s high for Pakistani cinema in 2020.
