Baahubali 2 sets opening weekend record with Rs385 crore in box office collections
The Hindi version of 'Baahubali 2' alone made Rs128 crore in box office collections over the opening weekend, beating those of Aamir Khan's 'Dangal'
New Delhi: Baahubali continued to make big bucks at the box office through the weekend, becoming India’s highest opening weekend earner ever. The movie collected a total of Rs385 crore across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, estimates film trade and business expert Girish Johar.
Baahubali 2: The Conclusion has been released in four languages—Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. To be sure, Rs128 crore out of this was made by the Hindi version alone with a screen count of 4,000, beating the recent Hindi blockbuster Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal that made Rs107.01 crore over the first three days. Salman Khan’s Sultan had, meanwhile, enjoyed a five-day festive Eid weekend last year and earned Rs180.36 crore.
Johar said the film had grossed ₹ 520 crore worldwide, including ₹ 9.91 crore in North America, ₹ 3.21 crore in the United Kingdom, ₹ 6.78 crore in Australia, ₹ .51 crore in New Zealand and ₹ .26 crore in Malaysia.
The film had earlier made Rs121 crore on Friday, emerging as the highest opening day earner in India.
Baahubali 2, a sequel to Rajamouli’s 2015 blockbuster that had earned more than ₹ 00 crore worldwide, stars Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Ramya Krishnan and Sathyaraj in lead roles and revolves around two warring cousins in a fictional kingdom. The two films were made at a total budget of ₹ 400-450 crore. Released in about 6,000 screens nationwide, Baahubali 2 had tickets being sold at exorbitantly high rates across the country, with theatres booked for most of next week. The film crossed the screen count for a big-ticket Bollywood film, which stands at 4,500 currently.
Also read: ‘Why Katappa Killed Baahubali?’ powers Baahubali 2’s opening day record
Before Baahubali 2’s release, Shah Rukh Khan’s Raees, Hrithik Roshan’s Kaabil and Akshay Kumar’s Jolly LLB 2 were among the highest opening weekend earners in 2017, with earnings of ₹ 93.24 crore, ₹ 67.46 crore and ₹ 0.46 crore respectively. Their numbers pale in comparison to the success of Baahubali 2.
The Hindi version of the historical epic alone has dislodged Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Happy New Year,that had earned Rs108.86 crore in 2014, as the third-highest Bollywood opening weekend earner of all time, right behind Salman Khan’s wrestling film, Sultan and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (Rs129.77 crore). The latter was a Diwali release and had the advantage of a four-day weekend.
While the final word on Baahubali’s fortunes is yet to be out, trade experts have predicted a ₹ 500 crore first week for the film in India alone. With the war epic smashing records without a holiday weekend to bank on and despite the ticket price cap in south India, such revenue is a distinct possibility. The previous record for the highest opening week earners in India was held by Sultan ( ₹ 229.16 crore), Dangal ( ₹ 97.54 crore) and Dhoom 3 ( ₹ 88.99 crore).
All figures have been sourced from movie website Bollywood Hungama.
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