Six things worth knowing this weekend.
One call graded. It landed 9.3% high.
We called Hanuman Ansh's North America opening weekend at $0.85 million. It did $777,824. We were high by $72,176, or 9.3%, on a film that has no comparable anywhere in the market. The other two calls settle over the next fortnight.
| Call | Published | Our number | Grades | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hanuman Ansh North America opening weekend · overseas release 11 Sep | Pre-release | $0.85M actual $777,824 | Graded 17 Sep | +9.3% high · hit |
| Resident Evil US opening weekend | 14 Sep, raised 16 & 17 | $60M band $52–72M | Mon 21 Sep | Open · in cinemas now |
| Drishyam: The Conclusion India opening day | 17 Sep, raised 17 | ₹47.5 Cr band ₹45–50 Cr | Sat 3 Oct | Open · raised from ₹33 Cr |
Top 10 · Fri 11 – Thu 17 September
The holdover base fell 47% week on week. That collapse did more for the new slate than the slate did for itself. Six of the top ten are new entries, and the best of them managed only ₹10.42 crore.
| # | Film | 11–17 | 4–10 | Chg | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanuman Ansh Hindi · Week 6 · D42 | ₹80.25 Cr | ₹90.25 Cr | −11% | ₹243.38 Cr |
| 2 | Mirzapur: The Movie Hindi · Week 2 · D14 | ₹51.00 Cr | ₹148.45 Cr | −66% | ₹203.20 Cr |
| 3 | Bethlehem Kudumba Unit Malayalam · Week 4 · D28 | ₹16.75 Cr | ₹33.30 Cr | −50% | ₹152.20 Cr |
| 4 | Irumudi Telugu · Week 4 · D28 | ₹10.70 Cr | ₹24.70 Cr | −57% | ₹186.10 Cr |
| 5 | Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar Malayalam · Week 1 · D7 | ₹10.42 Cr | — | NR | ₹10.42 Cr |
| 6 | Haiwaan Hindi · Week 1 · D7 | ₹9.30 Cr | — | NR | ₹9.30 Cr |
| 7 | Epic Telugu · Week 1 · D7 | ₹6.91 Cr | — | NR | ₹6.91 Cr |
| 8 | Aasha Malayalam · Week 1 · D7 | ₹3.45 Cr | — | NR | ₹3.45 Cr |
| 9 | Mahendragiri Varahi Telugu · Week 1 · D7 | ₹3.00 Cr | — | NR | ₹3.00 Cr |
| 10 | Singh Vs Kaur 2 Punjabi · Week 1 · D7 | ₹1.67 Cr | — | NR | ₹1.67 Cr |
| 13 | Toxic Kannada +5 · Week 3 · D23 | ₹1.39 Cr | ₹8.94 Cr | −84% | ₹249.63 Cr |
Hanuman Ansh, week by week
Nothing in Indian release holds like that at day 42. Every other holdover on the chart fell between 50% and 84%. Toxic is the mirror image. It opened at ₹101.10 crore, took ₹239.30 crore in week one, and was finished inside nine days. The two sit at ₹243 crore and ₹249 crore, built in opposite directions.
Resident Evil opens in four Indian languages.
Sony Pictures India has it out day-and-date with the United States in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, on IMAX and 4DX among other premium formats. Ticketing platforms list it as certified A, running 1h 34m.
It is the best-reviewed video game adaptation ever made. Sony lifted the review embargo on Wednesday, a full two days before release. Studios do that when the scores are the campaign.
What India knows, and what it does not
Not much. No CBFC certificate details, no screen count, no advance booking figure and no India opening projection have been published by any Indian trade. Sacnilk's collection page says the data is not available. Bollywood Hungama's shows nothing at all. We are not going to invent a number to cover that.
What we can offer is the band. Hollywood horror in India this year has opened in a narrow lane:
| Film | India release | Opening day | Shows | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Evil Dead Burn | 10 Jul 2026 | ₹3.30 Cr | 3,573 | Biggest first week for 2026 horror, ₹25 Cr gross |
| Insidious: Out of the Further | 21 Aug 2026 | ₹2.60 Cr | 4,098 | English 4DX ran 39.7% occupancy |
| Obsession | 29 May 2026 | ₹1.75 Cr | 859 | Smallest start, longest legs |
The rest of the Indian slate
Thin. Four small-to-mid Hindi titles: Om Ka Hari, Daayra, Vibe and Bharat Desh Hai Mera. No wide Tamil or Telugu theatrical release at all. Resident Evil is the only new film this weekend with real multiplex pull, so its competition is the holdover stack.
What it has to get past
Hanuman Ansh goes into week seven as the film to beat, and it is the only holdover whose curve is not collapsing. Mirzapur is the exposed one. It gave back 66% in week two, and it now meets Resident Evil in week three with a young male multiplex audience that overlaps almost exactly. Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has run ₹52.30, ₹49.85, ₹33.30 and ₹16.75 crore across four weeks: a decay curve so even it looks modelled.
How we see the weekend.
Friday 18 to Sunday 20 September, India net. Every figure in the weekend column is a Boxoffy projection, not a report. NR marks a new release with no prior week.
| # | Film | Expected 18–20 | Proj. cume · Sun 20 | Week | Conf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanuman Ansh Hindi | ₹26–34 Cr | ₹269–277 Cr from ₹243.38 Cr | W7 | ●●○ |
| 2 | Resident Evil English · Hindi · Tamil · Telugu | ₹9–15 Cr | ₹9–15 Cr | NR | ●○○ |
| 3 | Mirzapur: The Movie Hindi | ₹8–12 Cr | ₹211–215 Cr from ₹203.20 Cr | W3 | ●●○ |
| 4 | Bethlehem Kudumba Unit Malayalam | ₹5–8 Cr | ₹157–160 Cr from ₹152.20 Cr | W5 | ●●○ |
| 5 | Pradhama Drishtiya Kuttakkar Malayalam | ₹3–5 Cr | ₹13–15 Cr from ₹10.42 Cr | W2 | ●○○ |
| 6 | Irumudi Telugu | ₹2–4 Cr | ₹188–190 Cr from ₹186.10 Cr | W5 | ●○○ |
| 7 | Haiwaan Hindi | ₹2–3 Cr | ₹11–12 Cr from ₹9.30 Cr | W2 | ●○○ |
| 8 | Epic Telugu | ₹1.5–2.5 Cr | ₹8–9 Cr from ₹6.91 Cr | W2 | ●○○ |
| 9 | Om Ka Hari Hindi | ₹1–2 Cr | ₹1–2 Cr | NR | ●○○ |
| 10 | Aasha Malayalam | ₹1–1.5 Cr | ₹4–5 Cr from ₹3.45 Cr | W2 | ●○○ |
Projected cume is the verified cumulative through Thursday 17 Sep plus our Friday–Sunday projection. India has no weekday gap — the week closed Thursday and the weekend opens Friday — so these carry no hidden days.
Where we could be wrong. Resident Evil at second is the call with the most air under it. The 2026 India band for Hollywood horror is a ₹1.75–3.30 crore opening day; we are projecting a three-day weekend of ₹9–15 crore, which requires it to run roughly double Evil Dead Burn's pace. The justification is the four-language release, the premium-format footprint and a 96% score. If it opens at Insidious pace instead, it lands fourth, not second.
A record fell on a Tuesday.
Before any of this weekend happened, Spider-Man: Brand New Day passed Avengers: Endgame on Tuesday 15 September to become the highest-grossing domestic release of all time, at $936.77 million. It got there in week eight, on a weekday, off an $8.4 million weekend. There was no re-release and no anniversary stunt. It just kept going until the number was gone.
Last weekend, for the base
| # | Film | Weekend | Chg | Cume | Wk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Practical Magic 2 Warner Bros | $30.00M | — | $30.00M | 1 |
| 2 | Spider-Man: Brand New Day Sony | $8.41M | −54% | $935.18M | 7 |
| 3 | The Odyssey Universal | $7.59M | −42% | $600.70M | 9 |
| 4 | Runner Angel Studios | $6.46M | — | $6.46M | 1 |
| 5 | Coyote vs. Acme Falling Forward | $6.40M | −47% | $47.93M | 3 |
Final actuals from The Numbers, not Sunday studio estimates — ranks 8 and 9 flipped between the two.
This weekend's slate
| Film | Studio | Theatres | Tracking | RT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resident Evil R · 1h 30m · Zach Cregger | Sony | 3,000 | $40–50M Deadline & BO Pro $44–53M Box Office Theory · $45M Variety | 96% |
| Shaun the Sheep: Beast of Mossy Bottom PG · 1h 20m | GKIDS | 2,173 | No range published | 100% |
| The Weight R · 1h 55m · Hawke, Crowe | Vertical | 1,504 | “Single digits” — Deadline | 93% |
Practical Magic 2 holds at $15–20M per Boxoffice Pro, or $12–15M per Deadline — a 50–60% drop. Spider-Man is projected at $4–6M in week eight.
Expected US Top 10 · 18–20 September
| # | Film | Expected 18–20 | Proj. cume · Sun 20 | Week | Conf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Resident Evil | $60M band $52–72M | $52–72M | NR | ●●○ |
| 2 | Practical Magic 2 | $14–18M | $44–48M from $30.00M | 2 | ●●● |
| 3 | Spider-Man: Brand New Day | $4–6M | $941–943M from $936.77M | 8 | ●●● |
| 4 | Shaun the Sheep | $4–6M | $4–6M | NR | ●○○ |
| 5 | The Odyssey | $4–5M | $605–606M from $600.70M | 10 | ●●○ |
| 6 | Coyote vs. Acme | $3–4M | $51–52M from $47.93M | 4 | ●●○ |
| 7 | Runner | $3–4M | $9–10M from $6.46M | 2 | ●○○ |
| 8 | The Weight | $2–4M | $2–4M | NR | ●○○ |
| 9 | Buddy | $2–3M | $23–24M from $21.39M | 4 | ●○○ |
| 10 | Insidious: Out of the Further | $1.5–2.5M | $62–63M from $60.58M | 5 | ●○○ |
Projected cume is the last published cumulative plus our weekend projection. Domestic weekday grosses for 14–17 Sep are not separately published per title, so those are not included — every US cume above is therefore a floor. Spider-Man is the exception: its base is the $936.77M Tuesday figure.
The OTT five, and why they are not comparable.
One caveat before the table, because it changes how you read it. No like-for-like cross-platform viewership ranking exists for India. Netflix publishes hours and views. JioHotstar, Prime Video, ZEE5, SonyLIV and Aha publish nothing at title level. Any list that ranks all of them in a single column is mixing units.
| # | Title | Type | Global hrs | Global views | India rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gandhari Netflix · Hindi | Film | 18.7M | 9.6M | #4 |
| 2 | Vishwanath & Sons Netflix · Tamil / Telugu | Film | 14.6M | 5.5M | #1 |
| 3 | Dhamaal 4 Netflix · Hindi | Film | 6.8M | 2.9M | #2 |
| 4 | G.D.N Netflix · Tamil | Film | 5.3M | 2.2M | #3 |
| 5 | Alpha Netflix · Hindi | Film | 3.6M | 1.5M | #6 |
Netflix global hours and views, week of 7–13 Sep 2026 — the most recent published week. India rank is Netflix's own country list, which carries rank only.
Note the divergence inside Netflix's own data. Gandhari leads on global volume but ranks fourth in India, while Vishwanath & Sons is India's number one. Rank and volume are not interchangeable.
A heavier weekend on OTT than in cinemas
Expected OTT Top 10 · India, week of 18–24 September
| # | Title | Platform | Type | Wks on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lust Stories 3 | Netflix | Film | NR |
| 2 | Bigg Boss S20 | JioHotstar | Series | 3 |
| 3 | Irumudi | Netflix | Film | NR |
| 4 | Chumbak | Netflix | Series | 2 |
| 5 | Gandhari | Netflix | Film | 3 |
| 6 | Thudakkam | JioHotstar | Film | NR |
| 7 | Vishwanath & Sons | Netflix | Film | 2 |
| 8 | MobLand S2 | JioHotstar | Series | NR |
| 9 | India's Got Latent S2 | Netflix | Series | 13 |
| 10 | Dhamaal 4 | Netflix | Film | 3 |
Jai Jai Ram, and a fight about lyrics.
A.R. Rahman's first track from Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana arrived on Ganesh Chaturthi, 14 September. Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal sing it, Dr. Kumar Vishwas wrote the lyrics, and it runs five minutes and twenty seconds over footage of Ranbir Kapoor and Sai Pallavi. It cleared 29 million YouTube views inside roughly two days. The film opens in India on 8 November, Diwali.
The reception was warm, and it was split in a very specific way. Praise went to the composition, the vocals and the visuals. Several outlets noted the track had won over viewers who objected to the casting after the trailer, and that the VFX looked markedly better than earlier footage. Rahman described the intent as keeping the feel of a prayer.
The criticism landed almost entirely on the lyrics. Commenters argued that Vishwas is a fine poet but the wrong choice as a songwriter here. One outlet ran the response as outright mixed, with listeners rating Adipurush's devotional tracks higher. The most common defence was that the lyrics hurt nobody's sentiments, which is an argument about safety and not about quality. That tells you something about the room.
Top streamed in India this week
Two charts, two different units, kept separate on purpose. Neither covers 11–17 September in full — those chart weeks close today or later.
| # | Track · YouTube India | Views | Track · Spotify India |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SaWaDiKa LISA | 48.6M | Arz Kiya Hai Anuv Jain |
| 2 | KALYANI — Remix ARJN, KDS, Shreya Ghoshal | 36.5M | Barsaat Banjaare, Roni |
| 3 | Yeshanagula The Paradise · Anirudh | 27.4M | KALYANI — Remix ARJN, KDS |
| 4 | Irumudi Kattu Irumudi · G.V. Prakash | 22.9M | Radhimaa Sai Abhyankkar |
| 5 | Parvati Sadhu Tiwari | 21.5M | Khat Khat Navjot Ahuja |
| 6 | Mallepoola Pallaki Irumudi | 20.2M | Bairan Banjaare |
| 7 | Barsaat Banjaare, Roni | 18.6M | Tera Mera Rishta Continues Awarapan 2 |
| 8 | Neno Butterfly Vishwanath & Sons | 16.8M | Gehra Hua Dhurandhar · Arijit Singh |
| 9 | Shararat Jasmine Sandlas | 16.6M | Mann Mera Gajendra Verma |
| 10 | Gehra Hua Dhurandhar · Arijit Singh | 16.0M | Finding Her Kushagra, Bharath |
YouTube column: video views during the tracking week ending 10 Sep. Spotify column: rank only — Spotify publishes no stream count for this chart publicly. The two are not comparable.
The closest published figure is Spotify India's all-time cumulative leaderboard, spanning February 2019 to August 2026 — not 2026. For what it is worth: Alka Yagnik's Agar Tum Saath Ho leads at 651.6M streams, ahead of Arijit Singh's Tujhe Kitna Chahne Lage at 609M. A different chart answering a different question, labelled as such.
The questions people are asking.
Friday 18 September 2026, day-and-date with the United States, released by Sony Pictures India in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, with IMAX and 4DX among the premium formats. There were no paid previews in India.
96% across 121 critic reviews, Certified Fresh. It is the best-reviewed video game adaptation ever made, ahead of Werewolves Within's 86% from 2021.
₹243.38 crore India net through day 42, against a ₹2 crore budget. It took ₹80.25 crore in week six, a drop of only 11% on week five — while every other holdover on the chart fell between 50% and 84%.
Yes. It passed Avengers: Endgame on Tuesday 15 September 2026 to reach $936.77 million domestic, making it the highest-grossing domestic release of all time. It did so in week eight, off an $8.4 million weekend.
Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal, composed by A.R. Rahman with lyrics by Dr. Kumar Vishwas. Released 14 September 2026 and past 29 million YouTube views in roughly two days. Ramayana opens in India on 8 November 2026.
Lust Stories 3, Irumudi, Modha Rathri and Zakir Khan: Papa Yaar on Netflix; Thudakkam and MobLand Season 2 on JioHotstar; Ram and Leela on Prime Video. All 18 September.
What to watch.
The preview number. Weapons did $5.7 million in previews and opened to $42.5 million. At the same conversion, our $60 million call needed roughly $6.8 million last night. At $8.0 million the top of the band comes into play. The figure lands Friday morning US time, and we will grade against it, not against the talk.
Hanuman Ansh in week seven. An 11% drop at day 42 is not a normal curve, and Resident Evil is an A-certificate horror film competing for almost none of the same audience. Hold once more and it stops being a sleeper story. It becomes the biggest Hindi run of the year.
Everything in the expected columns grades on Monday 21 September against Sacnilk and Comscore actuals.