Box office: Bollywood continues to wait for a big opener after Laal Singh Chaddha and Rakshabandhan

Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor in 'Laal Singh Chaddha', which released in theatres on Thursday (August 11, 2022).

It is turning out to be a long agonising wait for a Bollywood film to open well at the box office. While Shamshera and Samrat Prithviraj were the last two films to have managed at least a double digit opening, this Thursday's releases Laal Singh Chaddha and Rakshabandhan were actually expected to do much better. In fact the Aamir Khan starrer was being pegged to beat the first day score of Kartik Aryan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (Rs 14.11 crore) and Rakshabandhan was set to be the personal best of Akshay Kumar after his holi release Bachchan Pandey (Rs 13.25 crore).

Sadly, the opening-day collections for both films were much lower than expected. Laal Singh Chaddha could muster up only Rs 12 crore, while Rakshabandhan had to be content with Rs 8.2 crore. There was a lot of expectation from both the films though and within their own markets, they were expected to start well.

Laal Singh Chaddha was catering to the urban multiplex audiences whereas Rakshabandhan had set the stage for itself amidst single screen audiences in the smaller towns and cities. Well, both the films did reach out to their respective segments but it wasn't enough to set the box office on fire.

The second day of the films was Friday, a working day, and hence the drop in ticket sales was expected. While Laal Singh Chaddha collected Rs 7.5 crore more, Rakshabandhan brought in Rs 6.4 crore. The good news is that that there isn’t any crash per se since both the films have certain merits for their target audiences.

The filmmakers timed the releases perfectly - an extended five-day weekend and no other film in the running either, which means that for exhibitors and distributors, these are the only two that can bring in money.

Today will be key: ticket sales must go over the Thursday collections to give hope that the films will build momentum over Sunday and Monday, both being big holidays. If that doesn’t happen, then the five day time period available for both the movies won’t really be advantageous.

While box office earnings for Laal Singh Chaddha currently stand at Rs 19.5 crore, Rakshabandhan has made Rs 14.6 crore so far. Given the credentials attached to the films, these should ideally have been the first day collections. Now with Ranbir Kapoor’s Brahmastra coming up next, one just hopes that there is a new opening day record of 2022 set soon enough. The industry needs that.