Box office: Jawan, Mission Raniganj, Fukrey 3 bring in over Rs 15 cr on National Cinema Day

Current box office collections for Fukrey 3 are over Rs 86.39 crore. (Screen grab)

It was an excellent day at theatres on the occasion of National Cinema Day on Friday as full-houses greeted all the movies running, be it Jawan which has been playing for five weeks (it released in theatres on September 7, 2023) or Mission Raniganj, which only came last Friday. Majority of auditoriums were playing to capacity right from the afternoon shows and by the time the evening shows began, there was practically no seat available at most properties.

In total, more than Rs 15 crore came at the box office from just three big films in the play, Jawan, Mission Raniganj and Fukrey 3, and then there were Rs 2-3 crore more which came from other films like Thank You For Coming, new release Dhak Dhak, and other few holdover Hindi films like Gadar 2, Dono and even OMG 2 which was brought back to theatres for a show or two.

In terms of footfalls, this was worth Rs 50 crore since normally the ticket prices are Rs 300 at least and here they were available for Rs 99. So from capacity perspective, there was thrice the number of footfalls than what the collections would suggest, and this truly made Friday a blockbuster day since the last time one saw such huge occupancy on an all-India level was five weeks back when Jawan was in its first week.

Talking about Jawan first, it's continuing to create a huge impression in its sixth week. The film brought in Rs 5 crore* on Friday. This is absolutely unprecedented as almost five lakh people watched the film on Friday and that too on a limited count of screens. On Thursday, the film had brought in Rs 77 lakh so the kind of exponential jump that it has seen on Friday is just amazing. This has also pushed the film's overall total to Rs 634.63 crore* and that adds on its all-time mega blockbuster status.

Mission Raniganj, starring Akshay Kumar, was also not behind and brought in Rs 5 crore* more on Friday. The film has been critically acclaimed and also liked by that set of audiences which has watched it in the first week. However, after its first week which had brought in Rs 18 crore*, the consensus was that it should have done at least three times this business due to the merits and the credentials involved.

It remains to be seen whether the additional footfalls on Friday will ensure good word-of-mouth that spreads quickly enough and there is renewed interest amongst the audience. If that happens, then it would be a remarkable turnaround for the Tinu Suresh Desai directed drama. The film has now reached Rs 23 crore.

Meanwhile, Fukrey 3 is marching well towards a lifetime total of Rs 95 crore; with some really massive push, it could aspire for 100 Crore Club entry, too. On its third Friday, the film collected Rs 5.10 crore, which is really good because last Friday the film had brought in Rs 2.31 crore. Compared to the day before, these collection figures are almost five times the collections of release day (a Thursday), when the film had collected Rs 1.05 crore.

The ensemble comedy has really caught the fancy of the audiences and that's the reason why even though it's in the third week, there are lakhs of added footfalls coming in. This spike which has come right at the start of the third week could well help bringing in added momentum, especially since there is no other major new release for competition. Currently standing at Rs 86.39 crore, the film should cross Rs 90 crore pretty soon now and it would be its journey from Rs 95 crore to Rs 100 crore that would be closely observed.

*Estimates. Final numbers awaited

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources