22 February 2026 Sunday Box Office Collection Report

It is 7:00 AM on Monday, 23 February 2026. Yesterday was Sunday.

Sunday is supposed to be the undisputed king of the Indian box office. But yesterday the script flipped entirely.

O Romeo, carrying a mammoth 150 crore budget, crawled to a pathetic 3.2 crores on its second Sunday, taking its India Net to just 56.53 crores.

Meanwhile, an absolute titan like Border 2 is still pulling 0.85 crores on Day 31 with a worldwide total touching 444.11 crores. And then you have the silent assassin With Love which was made on a tiny 10 crore budget but minted 1.1 crores on Day 17 taking its worldwide total to a massive 34.22 crores.

The new releases Do Deewane Seher Mein and Assi are practically on life support after just three days.

Why does this matter?

It matters because the industry is bleeding and the fan wars are blinding us to the truth. Twitter fan clubs can trend hashtags all day, but the ticket window is a brutal mirror. The gap between expectation and reality is exactly what is killing these mega-budget films.

You may have a great video idea, but the script will make it meaningful.

The dopamine gap is the basic principle of every script, whether you write for films or social media. If the expectations are very high but the audience’s reality cannot surpass those expectations, then the story lacks impact. This is exactly what happened to O Romeo. The audience expected a masterpiece. The reality was a boring slog. The audience rejected it instantly.

My specific observation here is that the Indian audience has evolved faster than our filmmakers. We are seeing a complete pattern interruption. Psychology says that the brain loves patterns, but if they are broken, it goes into a shock. The old pattern was putting a big star on a poster to guarantee a massive opening weekend. That pattern is dead.

Are megastars officially irrelevant now?

Let us look at the cold hard evidence from yesterday.

The Mega Disaster: O Romeo

Budget: 150 Cr Day 10 Collection: 3.2 Cr India Net: 56.53 Cr Worldwide: 84.81 Cr

This is painful to write. A 150 crore budget film making 3.2 crores on its second Sunday is a nightmare for the producers. The emotional cycle in this film was completely flat. This wave pattern denotes the pacing of your video.

O Romeo lacked that emotional pacing. It is a certified disaster. The distributors are going to lose heavy money here.

The Unstoppable Force: Border 2

Budget: 275 Cr Day 31 Collection: 0.85 Cr India Net: 328.02 Cr Worldwide: 444.11 Cr

Thirty-one days. Let that sink in.

Border 2 is in its fifth weekend and still adding almost a crore to its kitty on a Sunday. The nostalgia factor and the high-octane action kept the audience hooked. It is an all-time blockbuster holding its ground against every new release. The makers did not cheat the audience.

The ROI King: With Love

Budget: 10 Cr Day 17 Collection: 1.1 Cr India Net: 26.26 Cr Worldwide: 34.22 Cr

This is the magic of storytelling. Storytelling is the Sachin Tendulkar of the content industry. The makers of With Love understood this perfectly. They kept the budget tight at 10 crores. Day 17 collections are identical to films that released just three days ago. A worldwide gross of 34.22 crores means everyone involved is swimming in profit.

The Dead On Arrival Squad

Do Deewane Seher Mein: Budget 35 Cr. Day 3 collection 1.62 Cr. India Net 4.77 Cr. Worldwide 5.62 Cr. Assi: Budget 25 Cr. Day 3 collection 1.59 Cr. India Net 4.44 Cr. Worldwide 5.27 Cr.

Hey Bhagawan: Budget 15 Cr. Day 3 collection 1.1 Cr. India Net 3.29 Cr. Worldwide 5.46 Cr. Bambukat 2: Budget 8 Cr. Day 3 collection 1 Cr. India Net 2.27 Cr. Worldwide 6.97 Cr.

All four of these films had their first Sunday yesterday. A first Sunday is make or break. Earning 1.6 crores or less means the audience has completely rejected the content. They failed to create any curiosity gap. Our brain hates incomplete information. But these films offered nothing to be curious about. They are washing out of theaters tomorrow.

The Survivor: Mardaani 3

Budget: 70 Cr Day 24 Collection: 0.55 Cr India Net: 47.43 Cr Worldwide: 70.13 Cr

Mardaani 3 is dragging itself to the finish line. It managed 0.55 crores on Day 24. It will cover its costs thanks to non-theatrical rights but the theatrical run is practically over.

The coming weekdays are going to be a bloodbath for the new releases. Monday drops will wipe them out completely. O Romeo will lose most of its screens by next Friday to make way for new content. The only films that will survive this week are Border 2 and With Love.

The industry needs to wake up and focus on writing better scripts instead of throwing money at vanity projects. The main essence of a good story is change. How a character was and how he became is the story. Films that fail to show this change will continue to crash at the box office.

This is fantastic news for the Indian film industry. Yes you read that right. It is brilliant news. Watching bad big-budget films crash and burn is the only way the system will cleanse itself. When a 10-crore film beats a 150-crore film on a Sunday it forces studios to respect the writers. The audience is ruthless now. I love it.

My Take

Question For You Do you think O Romeo failed because of the lead actor or was it purely the director making a boring movie? Tell me your thoughts below.