The crime thriller dropped 25 percent on its first Wednesday but has already recovered its budget twice over, making Devgn the only post-COVID Bollywood lead with three clean hits.
Drishyam 3 has officially crossed into hit territory, and it did it with a bit of a wobble on day six.
The film earned 15 crore net on its first Wednesday, down 25 percent from the 20 crore it made on day 5, according to Koimoi's box office tracking. That's a steeper fall than the film's run so far had suggested, roughly 5 crore more than expected, though Wednesday drops of this size have become fairly routine for big Bollywood openers once the weekend crowd thins out.
Still, the numbers add up to something solid. Six days in, Drishyam 3 has collected 230.5 crore net in India, which works out to 271.99 crore gross. Made on a reported budget of 110 crore, the film has already returned 120.5 crore on top of that spend, a return on investment of roughly 109.54 percent. By Koimoi's own benchmarks, that's enough to call it a clean hit.
What makes the number more interesting is what it does for Ajay Devgn's run sheet. Drishyam 3 is now his third hit in the post-COVID era, joining Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan. Per Koimoi's count, that puts him ahead of Shah Rukh Khan and Ranveer Singh, who have two apiece, making Devgn the only Bollywood actor in a lead role to notch three clean hits since theatres reopened after the pandemic. Whether every trade body agrees on what counts as a "hit" is a separate argument, but on this particular ledger, Devgn stands alone.
Thursday brings the real test. Day 7 is expected to see another dip, which is standard for a film heading into its second week, but Koimoi's advance booking numbers put early day 7 grosses already past 4.3 crore, with the film reportedly on track for Bollywood's third-biggest first Thursday of 2026. If that holds, the opening week should land somewhere between 243 and 244 crore net, a number that would put the Drishyam franchise's third instalment comfortably ahead of where most trade watchers had pegged it before release.
The bigger question now is staying power. Drishyam films have historically leaned on word of mouth rather than opening weekend fireworks, and the courtroom-thriller format doesn't usually draw repeat viewing the way a masala entertainer does. Whether Drishyam 3 can hold its Thursday-to-Friday numbers, and whether it can stretch into a second weekend without a sharp fall, will decide if this ends up being a solid hit or something closer to a blockbuster.
For now, the film has done what it needed to. It's recovered its cost, it's kept Devgn's post-COVID streak alive, and it's heading into week two with the kind of advance numbers that suggest the audience hasn't moved on yet. The next seven days should tell us whether that holds.
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