Indian actors Abhay Verma and Sharvari on a poster of the new Hindi film 'Munjya'.
The new Hindi horror-comedy, Munjya, is winning hearts at the Indian box office and remained steady on its eighth day even with the big release - Chandu Champion - in competition. After an impressive global opening of $3 million, Maddock Film’ new movie Munjya has earned $5.6 million in seven days worldwide. In India alone, the film made $4.9 million in its first week. In eight days, the film crossed $6 million at the global ticket windows.
Munjya features a ‘CGI actor’ in the lead role of the spirit - Munjya, along with actors Abhay Verma, Mona Singh, Sharvari Wagh, S Sathyaraj and Suhas Joshi. The film closed its first weekend at nearly $3 million worldwide. It made $2.3 million in India. Munjya is touted to be India’s first film with a CGI actor in the lead role - the supernatural creature (Munjya) has been created with the help of special effects. India’s Prime Focus Group worked on the VFX for Munjya for more than a year and created the eerie and mischievous protagonist. Directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, Munjya is based on a famous folklore from the Konkan region of the Indian state of Maharashtra.
Despite the wide release of Kartik Aaryan’s new film, Chandu Champion, Munjya maintained its ground. On its second Friday, Munjya made $500,000 while the new film earned $600,000 in India. On Saturday, Chandu Champion earned $980,000 while Munjya collected $860,000.
On Friday, June 7, Munjya made an opening of $600,000 and the numbers doubled on the second day, reaching $1.6 million for the two-day-total. In India, the film made an opening of $550,000 and the collections soared to $1.3 million on the second day.
Munjya has brought a ray of hope to Hindi film exhibition industry as last few months have seen dismal performance of big-budget movies such as Maidaan and Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. The new film ranks among top ten Hindi films with best opening weekend score in 2024. Toppling Rajkummar Rao’s Mr and Mrs Mahi, and Sidharth Malhotra’s Yodha, Munjya ranked at number seven. Hrithik Roshan-Deepika Padukone-starrer Fighter remains on top of the list which has Ajay Devgn-R Madhavan’s Shaitaan, Tabu and Kareena Kapoor Khan’s Crew, and Tiger Shroff and Akshay Kumar-starrer Bade Miyan Chote Miyan on the second, third and fourth slots. Shahid Kapoor-Kriti Sanon’s Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya and Yami Gautam’s Article 370 follow them on the list above Munjya.
Munjya is the fourth film in the horror-comedy universe created by producer Dinesh Vijan under the banner of Maddock Films. It began in 2018 with Rajkummar Rao-Shraddha Kapoor-starrer Stree which received wide critical and commercial success. Soon, Janhvi Kapoor joined Rao for the second film titled Roohi in 2021. The production house released Varun Dhawan-starrer Bhediya in 2022 and Munjya is now being produced and presented by Vijan and Amar Kaushik. Maddock Films also announced the release date for Stree 2, featuring Kapoor and Rao, a few days ago.
While Hindi films have not been scoring big at the box office for the past few months, several small-budget films have been doing well. Rajkummar Rao’s rom-com Mr & Mrs Mahi has completed two weeks at the ticket windows and continues to run in cinemas all over. It has managed a total of a $6.5 million. Rao’s another film, Srikanth, has completed a month at the box office and scored nearly $8 million.
