More than 40 days since the release of Shah Rukh Khan’s blockbuster Pathaan, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is raising hopes for another good grosser from Bollywood.
Released on the partial holiday of Holi (March 8), the film collected Rs 15.73 crore on Wednesday. This is the second-best start that a Bollywood film has taken since the release of Drishyam 2, which had collected Rs 15.38 crore on its first day. Post that no Bollywood film (barring Pathaan) released in 2023 has managed to cross even Rs 10 crore on the first day. In that respect, director Luv Ranjan's film will have come as a respite to movie exhibitors.
Expectedly, the film did see a drop on Thursday, since it was a regular working day - ticket sales came to Rs 10.34 crore. The good thing is the romcom cum family drama continued to collect in double digits on Friday, which saw Rs 10.52 crore being accumulated at the box office.
At the time of drafting this column, morning and afternoon shows for Saturday were seeing a huge jump (almost double) over Friday. Of course this doesn’t mean that the sharp upward trend will continue into the evening and night shows, since the biggest difference between weekends and weekdays tends to be footfalls for the morning and afternoon shows. Since Friday evening had already seen improvement in footfalls, there won’t be an exponential difference evidenced on Saturday evening.
The movie is doing particularly well in the north, in areas like Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, and then urban centres like Bangalore and Pune. It doesn’t have much of a reach in interiors and rural areas.
While it’s a given that the film will enter the 100 Crore Club, what Ranbir Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor would be aiming for is to cross Rs 150 crore in lifetime earnings for the film, as that would infuse some life back in the industry which has been ailing with sporadic hits. With positive word of mouth from those who have watched the film, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar should emerge as just the kind of entertainer that brings in family audiences.
As of Saturday, Pathaan had crossed national box office collection (NBOC) of Rs538 crore, gross box office collection of Rs 651 crore and global collection of Rs 1041 crore as of March 10, 2023, according to Yash Raj Films figures.
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
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