Drishyam 3, Dhurandhar The Revenge to Border 2, Awarapan 2, Welcome To The Jungle: Franchises roar at the box office in 2026

The year 2026 has been tremendous for franchise films at the box office, with Drishyam 3 as the most recent success. Trade experts decode their appeal this year

With Border 2, 2026 began on a high at the box office with the film emerging a commercial success crossing a collection of ₹300 crore. It set the ball rolling, and through the year, films like Dhurandhar The Revenge, Cocktail 2, Welcome To The Jungle, Dhamaal 4, Awarapan 2, and more recently, Drishyam 3 have kept the cash registers ringing, and proving that this year, it has been the year of franchise films. But why has the audience responded so well to these IPs this year?

A still from Drishyam 3

Recollect value supported by good content

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says while the familiarity can bring in a good opening, it’s the content that sustains the film. “A franchise always has a recollect value, and it can attract the audience on day one, but then the content has to do the talking. This year, Dhurandhar The Revenge, Dhamaal 4, Awarapan 2 and now Drishyam 3, are all very well made films with tremendous recall value. Some of them have characters whose stories you are invested in like in Dhurandhar and Drishyam,” he says.

Film distributor Akkshay Rathie agrees with the sentiment as he says, “Every year has its share of franchise films do well, but what has worked this year is great, engaging storytelling. Had Drishyam 3 not been a tale as well told, it perhaps wouldn’t have done as well as it did. Franchise films do give a familiarity to the world of the story, but beyond that, it’s purely the merit of the content that takes a film ahead.” He adds, “Awarapan was a flop, but Awarapan 2 ended up becoming Emraan Hashmi’s biggest film till date. Here, the franchise value’s familiarity gave the film wings to fly.”

Lessons from last year

In 2025, many big-budgeted sequels bombed at the box office including War 2, Son of Sardar 2 and Baaghi 4. Trade analyst Atul Mohan believes filmmakers learnt that the right packaging is what is needed for the audience to come into theatres. “They were all very bad and terrible movies. But this year, the filmmakers did the basic homework and it reflected in the results. The films have been quite decent in their making, and they came with the right packaging,” he says.

Mohan adds that making more family entertainers proved to be an advantage. “There were more neat, family entertainers this time. For a long time, families had been waiting to come together to watch a film in cinema halls, and this year the franchise films gave them that chance. Films like Drishyam 3, Welcome To The Jungle, they were family entertainers, and they were rightly promoted that way,” he says.

Adarsh says that the failure of films last year is purely on the content basis. “Even if franchises are a cash cow, films like War 2, Son of Sardar 2 failed because of bad content. You cannot blame the franchise value on that,” he says.

Hope for a good future

Mohan says that overall, it has been a good year for Bollywood thanks to franchise films, and he is hopeful for next year too as it starts with another anticipated sequel, Golmaal 5. “Golmaal, as a brand, has been the most successful film franchise so far with all four instalments having been hugely popular and successful, so we are hoping 2027 starts with a bang,” he says.

Rathie admits that the successes of this year might push filmmakers to announce more sequels but he hopes they happen for a reason. “Franchises should be made for the right reasons, and that reason is a solid story told well, rather than the popularity of the series,” he says.