Audiences want more sequels: SRK’s Pathaan, Jawan and Chak De hold the most franchise potential

• Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots is the movie which most people want to be made into a franchise.
• Shah Rukh Khan dominated the list with four of his movies making it to the top 10.
• The audience also picked movies like Hera Pheri where the sequel was not successful at the box office.
  

Shah Rukh Khan’s blockbusters this year — Jawan and Pathaan — have left the audiences longing for more. They, along with his earlier super hits Chak De and Chennai Express, feature in the list of movies that have the most franchise potential, says a report by Ormax.

The top most popular pick of the audience, however, is Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots ( 85% of the audience voted for it). The movie released in 2009 was a superhit starring Aamir Khan, Madhavan and Sharman Joshi and loosely based on Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone.

The survey conducted amongst 3,000 Hindi-film goers analyzed films released between January 1990 to September 2023. The report which picked the top 100 movies, is based on audience equity.

Ormax believes that franchises have a long way to go in the Hindi film industry. “Franchise films have been a dominant force driving the growth and stability for Hollywood over the past two decades. The contribution of franchise films to the Hindi theatrical domestic box office has grown from a mere 17% in 2019 to 45% in 2023,” said Sanket Kulkarni, head of business development (theatrical), Ormax Media.

Hollywood has made popular movie franchises be it Justice League, Marvel, Star Wars and more. It also has long-running franchises like Fast and the Furious as well as Scream. The Indian film industry has recently kickstarted the trend with the highly successful Bahubali series as well as KGF.


Top Bollywood movie franchises (current & potential)
Source: Ormax

Old franchises that have juice left

This includes movies that have made franchises also. The audience also picked popular franchises of Gadar, which recently had a second superhit sequel this year. Then there was also Dhoom where three movies have been made starring John Abraham, Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan as protagonists.

They also picked Sunil Shetty, Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal starrer Hera Pheri, even as its sequel bombed at the box office. Surprisingly, none of Rohit Shetty’s action films with a cop universe like Singham and Simmba feature in the list. But Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam, which is an adaptation of a Malayalam movie of the same name, made the cut.

The other movie that made the cut is Vicky Kaushal’s Uri: The Surgical Strike. “As the theatrical landscape increasingly leans toward event-driven films, choosing the right film to expand or initiate the franchise can go a long way in creating a powerful theatrical product,” said Kulkarni.

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