Hanuman Ansh Climbs Into Bollywood’s 2026 Top 3 After Slow-Burn Box-Office Run

Bollywood’s 2026 worldwide chart just got a surprise new member in the podium places — and it is not another star-driven opening-weekend juggernaut. According to trade reporting published on September 15, 2026, the Vishal Chaturvedi–directed devotional drama Hanuman Ansh has moved into third place among the year’s highest-grossing Hindi films worldwide, overtaking Mirzapur: The Movie on a late theatrical surge. India Today and NewsX both put the film’s Day-39 worldwide total near Rs 279.80 crore, a figure that would have seemed implausible after its first weekend. (India Today; NewsX)

The breakdown cited in those reports is consistent: about Rs 222.88 crore India nett, Rs 263.30 crore India gross, and Rs 16.50 crore from overseas markets. India Today’s Day-39 update said the film added about Rs 8.25 crore nett domestically on Monday, enough to push it past Mirzapur: The Movie’s then-reported worldwide tally of about Rs 273.64 crore. NewsX’s parallel Day-39 write-up cited the same worldwide figure and asked the same industry question: has the small-budget release now beaten the franchise film at the global box office? A day earlier, India Today’s Day-38 report had already tracked the film past Rs 250 crore India gross (about Rs 253.55 crore), with worldwide near Rs 268.05 crore after a Rs 22.50 crore Sunday — underscoring how quickly the late run accelerated into this week’s milestone. (India Today; NewsX; India Today Day 38)

What makes the climb unusual is the starting line. Both Day-39 outlets note that Hanuman Ansh opened to roughly Rs 10 lakh India nett — a figure that usually ends a theatrical conversation before it begins. India Today described an almost inverse path to Mirzapur: The Movie: the Prime Video–linked adaptation opened strongly and raced toward Rs 200 crore in India within about 11 days, while Hanuman Ansh built week by week on word of mouth instead of collapsing after its first stretch. NewsX likewise emphasized that the film’s first-week India nett was only about Rs 1.08 crore before momentum picked up in later weeks, with more shows and screens added as audiences responded. That contrast — franchise familiarity and star heat versus a slow-burn devotion title — is the core of why trade desks are treating Day 39 as more than a routine collection update. (India Today; NewsX)

On the 2026 worldwide ranking cited by India Today, Hanuman Ansh now sits behind Dhurandhar 2 (about Rs 1,813.11 crore) and Border 2 (about Rs 464.50 crore), and ahead of Mirzapur: The Movie and Akshay Kumar’s Bhooth Bangla in the Day-39 table (listed around Rs 270 crore worldwide there). That Day-39 ranked table is the clearest snapshot for this piece. India Today’s surrounding narrative also references Bhooth Bangla around Rs 231 crore in comparative language, without explaining the gap from the table’s roughly Rs 270 crore worldwide listing — so those figures are reported as published, not forced into one reconciled number. The film is reportedly made on a budget of around Rs 2 crore, a figure both India Today and NewsX present as trade/reportage rather than a studio-audited statement — an important caveat before any “return multiple” headlines. NewsX’s framing that the film has returned many times its reported cost is useful color, but box-office gross is shared among exhibitors, distributors, and other parties, so claims about studio profit should stay cautious. (India Today; NewsX)

Sixth-week business remains the other headline. India Today reported a sixth Friday of about Rs 10.50 crore, Saturday Rs 18.50 crore, Sunday Rs 22.50 crore, then the Monday drop to Rs 8.25 crore nett — still a striking Day-39 contribution for a film this deep into its run. Occupancy on that Monday was reported at about 26.04% overall, rising from morning through evening shows (morning about 16.85%, afternoon 27.54%, evening 30.54%, night 29.23%). With roughly Rs 20 crore still needed to touch Rs 300 crore worldwide, both outlets flag that milestone as the next target, while stressing that screen availability and new releases will decide how long the late run continues. NewsX also notes that Mirzapur: The Movie is still playing, so any “beaten for good” framing should wait until both runs are complete. (India Today; NewsX)

For iShook Daily readers, the story is less about a single Monday’s nett and more about what kind of theatrical year 2026 is shaping into. Big-budget titles still dominate the absolute top of the chart, but Hanuman Ansh shows that a low-cost, high-word-of-mouth release can still rewrite expectations deep into its sixth week — provided audiences keep turning up and distributors keep the shows. Box-office figures remain trade estimates; they move daily and are not independently audited here. Still, as of September 15 reporting, the film’s climb into Bollywood’s worldwide top three is one of the clearest underdog narratives of the Indian theatrical calendar so far this year.

Related reading: Tiger 3 global box office; January 2024 Hindi box-office report.

Image: Illustrative art for Hanuman Ansh’s Day-39 box-office climb — original graphic for iShook Daily; not promotional stills from the film.