Box office: 'Sooryavanshi' is Bollywood's fifth biggest opener in the last 3 years

Akshay Kumar in 'Sooryavanshi'.

Sooryavanshi, on its opening day, surpassed expectations to bring in Rs26.29 crore. The film opened across 3,500 screens in India and 1,200 screens abroad.

My prediction had ranged in the Rs20-25 crore bracket, with the upper end being an exception, given the inertia that had built among audiences who were glued to OTT for the last 18 months.

The opening day numbers have made the film the highest Day 1 grosser in Bollywood in 2021, of course. But the opening-day earnings have also surpassed anything released in 2020, when at least January to March saw normal, pre-pandemic foot traffic in cinemas.

For comparison, only two films breached the 10-crore mark in January-March 2020. They were Baaghi 3 (with a Day 1 collection of Rs17.5 crore) and Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior (Rs15.1 crore).

Also read: Akshay Kumar: “Overwhelming is just the beginning of how this feels”

Now let's go farther back to 2019 - the best year ever for Bollywood, with Rs4,400 crore coming in from Hindi release. In 2019, only three films opened better than Sooryavanshi. These were War (Rs53.35 crore), Bharat (Rs42.3 crore) and Akshay Kumar starrer Mission Mangal (Rs29.16 crore). Each of these was a holiday release, and Sooryavanshi had a real chance of beating Mission Mangal, but more about that later.

Otherwise, the other major openers of 2019 were much below Sooryavanshi, be it Dabangg 3 (Rs24.5 crore), Saaho (Rs24.4 crore), Kalank (Rs21.6 crore) or Kesari (Rs21.06 crore). To think of it, each of these was a much hyped product too, and saw a 'normal release' in 'normal times'.

Well, so that was about 2019, and if one looks at 34 months time period from January 2019 and November 2021, Sooryavanshi finds itself in the fourth place.

Now if one goes further back in time to exactly three years back, i.e., November 8, 2018, when Thugs of Hindostan had released, it would further bring things in perspective. This was the day when the Aamir Khan starrer had emerged as the first film ever in the history of Indian films to register a half century on the first day itself. The score had read Rs50.75 crore, which had set the platform for other biggies to follow.

Looking at this, then between November 8, 2018, and November 5, 2021, three years have elapsed and only four films have done better business than Sooryavanshi. These are War, Thugs of Hindostan, Bharat and Mission Mangal.

This is remarkable, given the background of Sooryavanshi's release: 50% occupancy rule in key territories like Maharashtra, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, night curfews in some parts of the country, general apprehension among audiences to venture out due to COVID, lack of awareness among a segment of audiences around whether the film is indeed arriving only in theatres (and not on OTT) - Sooryavanshi had to fight quite a few battles.

However, one of the major ones was in the days leading up to the film's release when conflict around revenue sharing played right till late Thursday night, hence holding advance booking. Had that not been the case, at least the morning and afternoon shows would have been much better for Sooryavanshi, hence allowing it to comfortably go past Mission Mangal total.

Sooryavanshi may actually be bigger than the numbers indicate. It has not just beaten the pandemic, it has emerged as one of the biggest releases of the last three years. Day 1 earnings show the film has brought people back into theatres, now all it needs to do is keep the momentum on.

Top-10 Day One grossers of the last 3 years:

War - Rs53.35 crore - October 2, 2019 (Gandhi Jayanti release)

Thugs of Hindostan - Rs50.75 crore - November 8, 2018 (Diwali release)

Bharat - Rs42.30 crore -  June 5, 2019 (Eid release)

Mission Mangal - Rs29.16 crore - August 5, 2019 (Independence Day release)

Sooryavanshi - Rs26.29 crore - November 5, 2021 (Diwali release)

Dabangg 3 - Rs24.5 crore - December 20, 2019

Saaho - Rs24.4 crore - August 30, 2019

Kalank - Rs21.6 crore - April 17, 2019

Kesari - Rs21.06 crore - March 21, 2019

Simmba - Rs20.72 crore - December 28, 2018

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources