Avengers: Endgame had a fantastic first week at the box office with collections going well past Rs 250 crore. With Rs 260.40 crore coming in at just seven days, the film set quite a few records for films releasing in India, especially when compared with the Bollywood releases.
So far, the biggest first week numbers for a Hindi film have been Sultan [Rs 208.82 crore], Tiger Zinda Hai [206.04 crore] and Sanju [Rs 202.51 crore], each of which entered the Rs 200 crore club in their first seven days. As a matter of fact this number was surpassed only by the Hindi version of Telugu film Baahubali 2 [Rs 247 crore]. However, Avengers: Endgame has surpassed even that milestone by a margin and in the process has scored a new benchmark for films to follow
No other Hollywood film has seen this kind of success before in India. The biggest before this was the previous installment of the Avengers frachise —Avengers: Infinity War, which had collected Rs 226 crore in India. That lifetime number has been decimated by Avengers: Endgame in a jiffy.
That said, while the Hollywood superhero flick would end up scoring quite well in its lifetime, strictly in relative terms, it has slowed down during last couple of days and hence the Rs 400 crore club entry is now out of question. After the film had scored a hat-trick of Rs 50 crore+ days at the opening weekend, it seemed like a much bigger haul was on the cards. Realistically, the best total now seems to be in the vicinity of Rs 375 crore.
That by itself would be a huge number indeed as the lifetime numbers of Sanju [Rs 342.53 crore], PK [Rs 340.8 crore] and Tiger Zinda Hai [Rs 339.25 crore] would be history in quick time. The race though would be with the highest grossing Bollywood film of all times, Dangal, which had collected Rs 387.38 crore in its lifetime.
The stage is now set for the future Hollywood releases in India as big numbers would now be expected from them as well, especially if these belong to the superhero or action genre. There is a definite market for such releases in India and the fact that Avengers: Endgame would enter the Rs 300 crore club in just 10 days before, and before the close of second weekend, pretty much paves the way for more to follow.
As for the Bollywood, it is turning out to be a poor weekend as none of the new releases have managed to make an impact.
Blank marked the acting debut of Karan Kapadia with good support coming from Sunny Deol. However, the film - despite well made by director Behzad Khambata - has just not reached out to the audiences. There was no real buzz that the action thriller carried and the release too was dull with a restricted arrival in theaters. As a result, the first day numbers are lesser than Rs 50 lakh and even with good jumps, a weekend of not more than Rs 2 crore is on the cards.
Setters hasn't found audiences going for it either at least on the first day as it collected less than Rs 36 lakh at the box office. The Ashwini Chaudhary directed film is better than Why Cheat India, which was a story that dealt with the examination mafia. However, audiences didn't quite make a beeline for this Aftab Shivdasani and Shreyas Talpade film that saw a very sparse release for itself. At best, the film would have a weekend in the vicinity of Rs 1.5 crore.
All eyes are now on the release of Karan Johar's next biggie Student of the Year 2 which releases on May 10. That's one film which should get audiences back for a Hindi release.
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