Comments
It was a thunderous start at the box office for Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year. The initial response to the film, which opened Friday, shows that it could earn ₹37-38 crore in opening day collections at the domestic box office.
According to trade analysts, the film may beat multi-starrer Dhoom-3, released last year, which raked in ₹36 crore and set a record for the biggest single-day collection.
Produced by SRK’s Red Chillies Entertainment, Happy New Year is being marketed worldwide by Yash Raj Films. It is directed by filmmaker-choreographer Farah Khan.
Says trade analyst Komal Nahata: “Early morning shows were affected a bit by the festivities as well as the length of the movie, which meant cinemas had to start first shows earlier.”
Wide releaseHappy New Year is one of the biggest releases as it said to have opened across 5,000 screens in India alone.
The other big Bollywood releases this year include Singham Returns, which earned about ₹32 crore on the first day; Hrithik Roshan starrer Bang Bang, which raked in ₹27.54 crore, and Salman Khan’s Kick, which garnered a little over ₹26 crore. All were solo hero movies.
Multiplex chains expect weekend shows to be house full. This is despite the film’s duration being a little over three hours, which means a screen will be have four shows instead of the usual five.
“We believe the movie is drawing one of the highest-ever footfalls across all our cinemas. While afternoon shows saw occupancies of about 88 per cent, for the night shows it is expected to be higher, at 92-93 per cent, on the first day,” said Gautam Dutta, Chief Operating Officer, PVR Cinemas.
Says Ashish Saksena, COO, Big Cinemas: “It is the widest-ever release and occupancies are almost about 90 per cent across centres. The weekend is expected to also witness strong occupancies.”
According to a Red Chillies Entertainment's official twitter handle, Happy New Year has earned about Rs 44.97 crore at the Indian box office on the first day, which is said to be the biggest first day collection.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.