Dhurandhar: The Revenge is looking to collect over Rs. 70 crore nett at the Indian box office on its Thursday opening day. This final figure should be over/under Rs. 75 crore nett when the actuals arrive tomorrow morning. Combined with Rs. 39 crore nett approx from the paid previews yesterday evening, the grand opening day is expected to be north of Rs. 110 crore nett. It is the highest opening day ever for a Bollywood film, even without adding previews, surpassing the Rs. 64.50 crore nett of Jawan.
The film has performed best in Mumbai (sans Gujarat), Delhi, East Punjab and the South Indian circuits. The Central and Eastern circuits are fantastic as well, though relatively lower, many of them missing the record numbers, but one needs to remember, TODAY IS NOT a NATIONAL HOLIDAY. It is a mid-week Thursday, non-holiday release, with a huge chunk of demand getting consumed in previews. It was a holiday in Maharashtra and Southern states, but even that aside, these were the outperformers for the first film as well and have continued to be at the forefront this time as well, whether it is today on its opening day or yesterday for previews. These are the circuits driven by big metro centres, like Mumbai & Pune in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR in Delhi-UP and East Punjab and Bengaluru & Hyderabad in Mysore and Nizam.
Speaking of Bengaluru, it is absolute mayhem what the film is doing over there. The original Dhurandhar posted a crazy near Rs. 70 crore nett in the circuit. This one is close to Rs. 15 crore nett on its opening day, most of which has come from Bengaluru. By the end of the extended weekend, it will likely be around Rs. 40 crore nett, which only one other film has done in its full run.
With over Rs. 110 crore nett in the bank already, the focus is now on where the weekend can go. Although the film is nearly four hours long, it faces no scarcity of capacity, as it is playing exclusively at several centres, with over 21000 shows scheduled nationwide. Then there is a huge ticket price hike, which has taken the capacity to a level beyond anything that has ever been seen. The record-breaking numbers which the film has posted today are with several of the circuits not really pushing as much as they could, because… it’s a non-holiday mid-week release yada yada.
The film should hold strongly tomorrow as advances are already fantastic. Being day before the Eid holiday will help with the night shows, it could be so that the film hardly drops. Then there is a big holiday for Eid on Saturday, and it is that day when the Hindi circuits will be on board, and several new benchmarks will be set. At the very least, the film should collect Rs. 325 crore nett in its extended weekend. On the high end, it should blow over Rs. 350 crore nett, potentially approaching Rs. 375 crore nett.
