Salman Khan’s star power pushes ‘Dabangg 3’ to a ₹73 crore opening weekend

Despite being heavily impacted by the ongoing protests and violence against the Citizenship Amendment Bill, Salman Khan’s action comedy Dabangg 3 is looking at decent opening weekend collections of around Rs. 73 crore. Trade website Box Office India said the film could have made around Rs. 85 crore had not been for these law and order issues but the current figure, driven entirely by Khan’s star power, is still not bad.

“Dabangg 3 stays in the same range on day two. Few circuits up, few down. Protests hit business hard. Loses approximately Rs. 7.5-9 crore in two days. Business should see a turnaround on day three (Sunday),” trade analyst Taran Adarsh had tweeted earlier.

The Prabhu Deva directed film, whose runtime of 2 hours 42 minutes was reduced by around nine minutes on Saturday after the massive length was seen as adding to its woes, had earned around Rs. 22-23 crore on day one. Clearly, this is in no way, comparable to Khan’s record opening day collections—Bharat (Rs. 41.62 crore), Race 3 (27.69 crore), Tiger Zinda Hai (Rs. 34.12 crore), Sultan (Rs. 36.59 crore), Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (Rs. 39.32 crore) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Rs. 26.67 crore).

Box Office India said the Rs. 29 crore earnings of Sunday were a sign of some stabilization across the country though the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh circuit, where ironically the film is doing best business, remains heavily impacted. In fact, the opening weekend of the film still remains the fourth best of the year after War (Rs. 92.81 crore), Bharat (Rs. 90.47 crore) and Saaho (Rs. 80.75 crore).

The weekend numbers are also better than those of hits like Kabir Singh (Rs. 70.67 crore), Mission Mangal (Rs. 67.39 crore), Total Dhamaal (Rs. 60.75 crore) , Kesari (Rs. 54.35 crore), Super 30 (Rs. 50.58 crore) and Housefull 4 (Rs. 49.26 crore) even though it has lost around 15% of its potential weekend earnings.

The film co-starring Sonakshi Sinha is looking to benefit from the Christmas holiday this week if it can sustain over weekdays and an overall stabilized political situation across the country would also help. But while it has already earned around Rs. 90 crore from the sale of satellite and digital rights, mixed reviews and word-of-mouth currently pouring in, are not very helpful.