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As expected, ‘Singh Is Bliing’ took a record opening at the box office on Friday. As was predicted in this column on Thursday, the film was set to register around Rs. 20 crore (Rs. 200 million) on the opening day and this is exactly what happened when Rs. 20.67 crore (Rs. 206.7 million) came in. Given the fact that it was a national holiday on Friday, collections were bound to come down on Saturday (Rs. 14.5 crore – Rs. 145 million), though they did see an escalation again on Sunday (Rs. 19.27 crore – Rs. 192.7 million), hence pretty much going by the script.
As things stand today, the weekend collections stand at Rs. 54.44 crore (Rs. 544.4 million). With this, Akshay Kumar has set a new opening weekend record for a film of his, hence surpassing ‘Brothers’ (Rs. 52.08 crore – Rs. 520.8 million). Even for Prabhudheva, this is a new record as his last film with Akshay Kumar, ‘Rowdy Rathore’, had brought home Rs. 48 crore (Rs. 480 million) on the opening weekend. The film now needs to be stable over the weekdays in order to cross the Rs. 100 crore (Rs. 1 Billion) mark.
Meanwhile ‘Talvar’ saw a good opening day (Rs. 3 crore (Rs. 30 million), including Thursday paid preview of Rs. 50 lakhs (Rs. 5 million)) and was powered by good to very good all around reviews. The film was aimed primarily at the multiplex audience and saw good footfalls coming its way, hence registering around Rs. 9.5 crore* (Rs. 95 million) over the weekend. For a film made on a modest budget, these are decent collections. However, the film would have to fetch consistent collections right through the weekdays as on the coming Friday, another Irrfan starrer ‘Jazbaa’ – which too is a suspense dramatic thriller – hits the screens.
‘Puli’ (Hindi version) was a Disaster from Day One. It neither fetched the audience, not any good reviews. It went completely unnoticed and couldn’t even find an iota of appreciation that similar genre flick ‘Baahubali’ had enjoyed just a few weeks back. Also, Sridevi couldn’t entice audience to come to theatres, as she had so successfully managed to do so with her last release, ‘English Vinglish’.
* Final numbers awaited
Note: All collections as per production and distributor sources
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