Despite not being released in the States of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat got off to an admirable start at the box office. According to Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, the film’s national box office collection(including the Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions) stood at Rs 56 crore at the end of the second day. The film trade site, boxofficeoindia.com, pitched the net earnings at about Rs 53 crore.
According to Viacom, the paid previews on Wednesday evening stood at Rs 5 crore, the first day’s figure was Rs 19 crore that rocketed the second day—on Republic Day holiday—to Rs 32 crore. Boxofficeindia put the net figures for paid previews at Rs 4,25,00,000; first day at Rs 17,75,00,000 and the second day at Rs 31,00,00,000.
This seemed to be quite in tune with Ormax Cinematix first day forecast carried earlier by The Hindu . It had said that Padmaavat would have opened at about Rs. 27.5 crore under normal circumstances, had there been no disruption of the shows. But the prevailing disorder could lead to a dip in the business by about Rs 10 crore on the first day.
“The numbers [delivered by Padmaavat] are very good. There was a 30-35% loss on the first day because of the disruptions; it came down on the second day to a 25-30% loss,” says Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai based specialised media consulting firm. The film would have been even bigger, in the league of monster blockbusters like Bahubali -- The Conclusion and Dangal, had there been no ban.
Limited release
However, the disruptions, protests and violence in some parts of the country seemed to have been balanced out by an overwhelming hype and curiosity in others. The film appeared to have performed the best in Mumbai, the South markets and West Bengal. Delhi-UP-Punjab segment was comparatively sluggish. It could also be because the film initially saw a limited release in UP, Bihar, Haryana due to protests and violence.
According to Shailesh Kapoor, it marked the best ever opening collections when it came to a Ranveer Singh or a Shahid Kapur film. It could well mark the second best opening for Deepika Padukone after Chennai Express. No wonder, the lady decided to throw an impromptu dinner for senior film journalists at the Maharaja Bhog thali restaurant in Juhu on Saturday evening. “These are the kind of opening numbers posted by the Khans,” says Mr. Kapoor.
Overseas market respond well
The overseas market has also responded exceptionally well, other than the Middle East. According to boxofficeindia the opening in Gulf had not been too strong for a huge film that it was ($375K). However, the film could well make it to the all time grossers list in Australia, UK and the US. The film posted Australia $ 367K in Australia and £100k in the UK on the opening day. It set an all time record in US/Canada for the opening day with a business of $1.20 million approximately bettering Dhoom 3 record of $1,082,000. Bahubali - The Conclusion had a higher number with $4.75m but that was in three languages with the Telugu version getting most of the business, according to boxofficeindia.com
The trade community was optimistic for peace to prevail and expected things to settle down further over the weekend. The film’s high budget (rumoured to be around Rs 200 crore) was a big downer but Padmaavat also has a clean run ahead till February 9 with no major Bollywood or Hollywood film up for release.
