Despite the lack of an official box office system or entity in the country that can maintain and publish precise records of movie theatre and multiplex ticket collections, a Bangladesh-based Facebook page, BMR, recently shared the data they had gathered about the top 2024 grossing films.
According to BMR, the Shakib Khan-starrer ‘Toofan’ topped the list as the highest-grossing Bangladeshi film released in 2024 across theatres, earning a total of Tk 15 crore 39 lakh from ticket sales.
The Dhallywood megastar reigned supreme on the list with his two other films, as ‘Rajkumar’ made a total collection of Tk 1.88 crore and his latest release ‘Dorod’ (currently running) has made Tk 1 crore and 47 lakh from the theatres, as of now.
Among other films, ‘Mona: Jinn-2’ earned Tk 76,02,000; ‘Deyaler Desh’ made Tk 75 lakh and 61 thousand; ‘Kajolrekha’ made Tk 73,89,000; recently released Mostofa Sarwar Farooki directed film ‘840’ earned Tk 65 lakh and 71 thousand; Mehazabien Chowdhury’s silver screen debut film ‘Priyo Maloti’ made Tk 62 lakh and 84 thousand (currently running in theatres); ‘Omor’ made Tk 62 lakh and 41 thousand and late actor Ahmed Rubel’s last ever film ‘Peyarar Subash’ made the gross collection of Tk 29 lakh and 25 thousand in total.
Regarding the number and the process through which BMR made the list it revealed on Facebook recently, UNB contacted BMR, which informed that the page has been tracking the websites of multiplexes manually every day to record the gross collection of films since July 22, 2023.
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“Currently, we track each show of the 12 multiplexes/miniplexes, which include six branches of Star Cineplex, Lion Cinemas, Silver Screen in Chittagong, Grand Sylhet Movie Theater in Sylhet, Mom Inn in Bogura, Grand Riverview Cineplex in Rajshahi, and Monihar Cineplex in Jessore,” BMR informed UNB.
BMR also revealed the highest multiplex-grosser 2024 Hollywood films in the county, which has been topped by ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ (Tk 3.15 crore), followed by ‘Moana 2’ (Tk 2.42 crore, currently running); ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’ (Tk 2.28 crore); ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ (Tk 1.67); ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ earned Tk 1.50 crore; ‘Dune: Part Two’ made Tk 1.48 crore; ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’ collected Tk 1.28 crore (currently running); ‘Despicable Me 4’ collected Tk 84.92 lakh; ‘Interstellar’ (re-released in Bangladeshi multiplexes) made Tk 81.26 lakh and ‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ made Tk 79.71 lakh.
Among the highest multiplex-grossing films of 2024 (Hindi, Spanish, Japanese, SAAFTA movies), ‘Crew’ (Hindi) made Tk 2.28 crore; Mosharraf Karim-starrer ‘Hubba’ (Bangladesh-India, SAAFTA) collected a total of Tk 94.84, ‘Stree 2’ (Hindi) made Tk 74.66 lakh (currently running); ‘Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle’ (Japanese) earned Tk 50.44 lakh; ‘Mr. & Mrs Mahi’ (Hindi) made Tk 43.44 lakh and ‘Muchachos: La Pelicula De La Gente (Spanish)’ made a total of Tk 16.40 lakh from ticket sales across Bangladeshi theatres.
For many years, the Bangladeshi film community has been calling for the establishment of a proper box office in the country. Although starting a box office to produce and publish accurate data regarding the gross collections of the films is challenging, there is still room and hope for producers, distributors, and theatre owners to succeed in doing so in collaboration with the government.
A National Film Conference is set to take place on Wednesday at Dhaka University’s Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban which will be joined by Interim Government’s Information and Broadcasting Adviser Md Nahid Islam, Cultural Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki and Adviser Mahfuj Alam, and the agenda regarding the establishment of a proper box office system will be a key discussion point at the conference, according to the organizers.