Kalki 2898 AD has become a global Netflix hit. The Telugu-language sci-fi epic, which stars Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, and Prabhas, made waves during its production when it became the most expensive movie ever produced in India with a reported budget of ₹600 crore, or roughly $72 million USD. The Kalki 2898 AD box office lived up to the promise of its enormous price tag, earning between ₹1,041.65 and ₹1,100 crore, which made it the fifth highest-grossing Indian movie of all time and the third highest-grossing Telugu movie.
Netflix has now calculated their global Top 10 list of the most watched non-English movies for the week of August 19 through August 25 on the platform. Kalki 2898 AD has landed on the chart at No. 2 in its debut week with 4.5 million viewers accumulating a total of 13.1 million viewing hours. It fell behind the Spanish-language effort I Can’t Live Without You, which had a shorter run time and thus had only 8.1 million viewing hours but nevertheless had a total of 5 million viewers in its second week on the chart.
The Stage Is Set For The Kalki Cinematic Universe To Become A Huge International Franchise
The Kalki 2898 AD Sequel Is Already On Its Way
This streaming success for Kalki 2898 AD coming hot on the heels of its box office success is good news for the longevity of the franchise. The movie already comes at a time that Indian releases are finding more of a foothold in the global box office, with titles like Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan and Pathaan also breaking records, but the 2024 title has become the biggest hit since the one-two punch of 2022’s RRR and KGF: Chapter 2, which came out within one month of each other and are the No. 3 and No. 4 highest-grossing Indian movies respectively.
India’s No. 2 highest-grossing movie is 2017’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion while the No. 1 movie is 2016’s Dangal.
The fact that Kalki 2898 AD has so far outperformed every other movie since the release of KGF: Chapter 2 speaks to the viability of the burgeoning Kalki Cinematic Universe. The franchise has already built a foundation with the two-part prequel miniseries Bujji and Bhairava, which premiered on Prime Video in May and became India’s most-watched Telugu show, but a sequel titled Kalki 2898 AD: Part 2 is also in the works, with more than half of principal photography already completed.
Considering the huge budget of Kalki 2898 AD, this kind of consistent and immediate success in theaters and streaming is likely necessarily in order for the franchise to build up steam and continue into future installments. However, the Indian action movie does not seem to be facing any major commercial hurdles so far. It remains to be seen how the sequel, which will likely not hit theaters for several years, performs, but for the time being the future of the property seems bright.
Source: Netflix
