Street 2 has a clear lead over Khel Khel My And Vedaawhich makes it clear that the other films will struggle to catch up. On the first day, Street 2 appeared with Shraddha Kapoor And Rajkummar Raocrossed the Rs 50 crore mark, while Vedaa with John Abraham and Sharavi Wagh and Khel Khel Mein with Akshay Kumarearned only about 6 and 5 crore rupees respectively.
The disappointing performance of Khel Khel Mein and Vedaa has not come as a surprise to industry insiders. Distributor and theatre operator Raj Bansal told ETimes, “The paid preview of Stree 2 has grossed a fantastic Rs 8.25 crore, which is probably the highest in recent times. And if Stree 2 had released as a single release this Independence Day, it would have broken all box office records. In the trade, ordinary reports are coming out of Vedaa, which has grossed around Rs 6.25 crore, and Khel Khel Mein has grossed Rs 5.25 crore despite decent reports.”
Industry analyst Girish Wankhede noted, “Stree 2 was a clear winner thanks to its fabulous franchise strength, fantastic musical score with a brilliant Bhojpuri additional number by Pawan Singh, superb marketing and promotional campaigns and maintaining our masses’ newfound love for the horror comedy genre. Vedaa came second with Rs 6.52 crore and released in Telugu and Tamil besides Hindi, followed by Khel Khel Mein with a measly Rs 5 crore on its opening day. While Vedaa worked on its tried and tested action formula of Satyamev Jayate and Batla House and catered to B and C centres, the Akshay Kumar starrer Khel Khel Mein’ is clearly a loser in this business with its lacklustre marketing and name recognition. Stree 2 will dominate this long weekend with additional midnight shows and cross the Rs 150 crore mark on the sheer strength of its trend-setting screenplay, surprise cameos and consolidation of the supernatural universe created by Maddock films.”
Akshaye Rathi says, “It was a fantastic Independence Day for everyone at the Film Exhibition Centre. Stree 2 created a tsunami by grossing over Rs 50 crore, which is significantly more than the average collection of most films associated with the talent featured in this film. It really shows the power of a great narrative, great production, great marketing and at the core, the role of a solid producer. Credit goes to Dinesh Vijan, Amar Kaushik and writer Niren Bhat who did their job well and made Stree 2 the blockbuster that it is.”
Rathi added, “While Vedaa and Khel Khel Mein have done fairly decent numbers, that’s not what you expect from an August 15 release and they will be overshadowed by the juggernaut that is Stree 2. But we can hope that the word of mouth for all three films continues over this period and they manage to do respectable numbers, considering that there are no major releases lined up on the weekend of August 22 and 29.”

Commenting on Shraddha Kapoor’s involvement in the successful franchise, Rathi said, “Shraddha Kapoor is incredibly lucky to be a part of this franchise as it will catapult her popularity and make her much more popular with the mass audience that she truly deserves and give her a certain level of star status.”
Industry analyst Taran Adarsh ​​​​criticised Akshay Kumar’s strategy of releasing three films in four months and stated, “This is a total tsunami at the box office and has shocked and surprised the industry. It is a wake-up call especially for the actors to face a force like Stree 2.” He added, “You know, Stree has built a huge fan base over the years, besides the love it has generated, the trailer and the franchise factor also played their part and to top it off, the Tamannah Bhatia song came along. I have seen some videos where I have seen the audience going crazy on this song. People are dancing, it took me back to the 70s and 80s when people used to dance to the songs in the cinema.”
On the clash with Vedaa and Khel Khel Mein, Adarsh ​​said, “Stree 2 is unstoppable and putting your film in front of this tsunami is a misstep and requires a lot of courage. It’s like putting your film in front of KGF 2 and Pushpa 2 requires a lot of courage. Surprisingly, people thought Khel Khel Mein would be the second highest but it is in the third position. And John is ahead with Vedaa. Also, Khel Khel Mein is very metrocentric and the audience has not given it a thumbs up either because Stree is a formidable force there too. On the other hand, Akshay has brought out three releases, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Sarfira and now this film and that is not a good strategy. And it is a wake-up call for the entire industry. Stars are important, I don’t deny that, and they have to drive the audience, but ultimately it is the content that speaks for itself.”

Director Saurabh Varma noted, “This week has been a really scary one for the big stars who are collecting big fees for their blockbusters. The petite Shraddha Kapoor has beaten Akshay Kumar and John Abraham’s films hands down this week. While others went crazy marketing their films and took a formulaic approach to selling the film, Stree focused on his character arcs, humour and his main genre of horror comedy. I guess the big stars have to rely more on good content rather than doing what they conventionally do best. What makes this comparison scary is that there is a drastic difference between Stree’s collections and the other two, Khel Khel Mein and Vedaa.”