Republic Day emerged as a bona fide festive weekend on the Indian cinema release calendar in 2023, when Shah Rukh Khan marked his comeback after a hiatus with Pathaan. The film’s record-breaking box office performance revived Bollywood’s fortunes and set a new benchmark. Since then, Republic Day weekend has consistently seen the release of a major patriotic film, cementing its status as a marquee box office window. While no release had matched Pathaan’s dominance so far, Sunny Deol’s Border 2 came close this year, posing a serious challenge to the SRK blockbuster’s long-held position.
Republic Day box office battle: Border 2 takes on Pathaan, Fighter and Sky Force
Pathaan hit theatres on a Wednesday, a day ahead of Republic Day, securing a lucrative five-day extended opening weekend. The Shah Rukh Khan-starrer rewrote Bollywood box office history, collecting ₹280 crore net in its first five days, including an extraordinary ₹70 crore on Republic Day alone.
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In 2024, Siddharth Anand attempted to replicate that success with Hrithik Roshan-led Fighter. However, the film delivered a comparatively muted performance, earning ₹41 crore net on Republic Day and ₹115 crore across its four-day extended weekend. The trend dipped further in 2025, when Akshay Kumar’s Sky Force opened to a modest ₹16 crore, later recovering to ₹31.60 crore on Republic Day, with a three-day weekend total of ₹73 crore.
Contrary to the belief that Pathaan’s performance was a one-off and that Republic Day lacked the pull of a true event weekend, Border 2 challenged that assumption. Fuelled by patriotism, nationalism and nostalgia, the Sunny Deol-starrer amassed ₹180 crore net over its four-day opening weekend, including an impressive ₹59 crore on Republic Day. On January 25, the film collected ₹54.50 crore—just 3 per cent short of Pathaan’s tally on the same date three years earlier. While Border 2 narrowly missed displacing Pathaan as the biggest Republic Day release, it firmly established the weekend’s potential as a powerful launch window and demonstrated that the benchmark set by the SRK blockbuster is within reach.
All about Border 2
Directed by Anurag Singh, Border 2 serves as a spiritual successor to JP Dutta’s 1997 blockbuster Border, which featured Sunny Deol alongside Suniel Shetty, Akshaye Khanna and Jackie Shroff. The sequel sees Sunny Deol return to the franchise, this time joined by Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh and Ahan Shetty. While the film received mixed critical responses upon release, it has delivered a strong box office performance, grossing ₹251 crore worldwide within its first four days.
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