A Hollywood horror sequel outran two big Hindi releases this weekend while Hanuman Ansh quietly overtook Mirzapur: The Movie's entire run.
A video-game franchise just outperformed two Hindi releases built around known names and a Bollywood premise.
Resident Evil, the latest instalment of the Hollywood survival-horror series, pulled in around ₹9.50 crore over the weekend and sat at the top of the domestic chart, according to trade figures reported by the Free Press Journal. That's more than either Meghna Gulzar's Daayra or Kunal Kemmu's Vibe managed on their own turf.
Daayra, the Prithviraj Sukumaran and Kareena Kapoor Khan drama built around a rape-and-revenge plot, opened to an alleged ₹4.10 crore, a number that stings harder given reports the film carried a hefty budget. Vibe, Kemmu's comedy pairing him with Preity Zinta, did better but still landed behind the Hollywood release, with a reported weekend sale of ₹7.85 crore.
So it wasn't survival horror beating one soft opener. It beat both.
The bigger casualty sits elsewhere on the chart. Haiwaan, the Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan film, has stalled at under ₹10 crore lifetime, a number the Free Press Journal's report flagged as the worst theatrical outcome in India in 25 years. That's a claim worth treating carefully until other trackers confirm it, but even a conservative reading puts two major stars in one of their weakest outings on record.
And then there's Hanuman Ansh, still running like it opened last week.
The devotional drama has become the quiet giant of this box-office cycle. As of September 20, its total stands at ₹258 crore, per the same report, enough to push past Mirzapur: The Movie's ₹206.50 crore lifetime tally. Mirzapur had the brand recognition, the built-in fan base from the streaming show, the noise. Hanuman Ansh had none of that going in, and it's the one still filling seats months on.
What this weekend confirms is something trade watchers have been circling for a while. A recognisable Hollywood horror title, even a franchise entry with no marquee Bollywood face attached, can still out-earn two mid-to-big Hindi releases in the same three days. Meanwhile, a small-budget devotional film keeps eating into numbers that streaming-adjacent titles like Mirzapur were supposed to own.
The next test comes fast. Daayra and Vibe both need a second-weekend hold to justify their marketing spends, and neither has the word-of-mouth momentum right now to expect one. Whether Haiwaan's number gets revised as more trackers weigh in, or whether Hanuman Ansh keeps climbing past the next milestone, should be clear within days.
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