The Box Office India Star rankings saw the first split of the Khans since 2012 when Ranbir Kapoor went up to second in July 2018 and in December there the split is bigger as Akshay Kumar goes into top four leaving Shahrukh Khan at number five. This is before the release of Zero as his older films lose points and there is nothing to cover those losses.

Aamir Khan went back above Ranbir Kapoor thanks to the huge opening of Thugs of Hindostan but how long this position can last is another matter as points of Dangal slowly go out of the rankings. There will be further changes as Zero and Simmba come into the picture in January.

The obituaries are being written for the Khans in the industry due to what happened in 2018 but they still remain the ruling stars though all three have seen their peaks. The scenario is a bit like Amitabh Bachchan in the late eighties and early nineties when Bachchan was not the same force as in the late seventies or early eighties but still the ruling star and by a distance. There was no challenge to Amitabh Bachchan and he ruled till the actually called it a day in 1992. The comeback came five years later but things had changed by then. What remains to be seen here is will the challenge come or are the Khans who are not at the level of super stardom of their peaks remain at the top and even this level of stardom is more than a match for others. Despite the talk, Salman Khan reigns supreme by a margin and the first signs of a real challenge will come when someone challenges for the top spot in this chart.

The rankings below are for India (August points in brackets) and completely based on opening box office numbers with holiday factors taken out and films which are technically guest roles or small releases left out.  The criteria for the rankings  below is here.

1. Salman Khan: 2056 points (2380)

2. Aamir Khan: 1185 points (765)

3. Ranbir Kapoor: 844 points (832) 

4. Akshay Kumar: 675 points (468)

5. Shahrukh Khan: 350 points (514)

6. Ajay Devgn: 330 points (282)

7. Ranveer Singh: 248 points (257)

8. Varun Dhawan: 217 points (395)

9. Tiger Shroff: 198 points (178)

10. Hrithik Roshan: -155 points (-205)

There is always the credit factor and padding factor and our representation can be seen here which adjusts a little as to how much are the numbers are actually the doing of the actor. That representation can be seen here. This representation will be updated in Mid Jan