This weekend’s Bollywood box office is shaping up to be quite buzzy as the Ranbir Kapoor starrer ‘Animal‘ and Vicky Kaushal starrer ‘Sam Bahadur‘ gear up for solid debut at the domestic box office. Advance reports for both movies indicate a terrific start for the Ranbir Kapoor’s widely anticipated film ‘Animal‘ and a really good opening for ‘Sam Bahadur‘ considering all things relatively.
According to reports, Animal movie has already sold advance tickets worth Rs 6.95 crore for its opening day Friday, citing data available from top cinema chains. Sam Bahadur on the other hand, raked up Rs 68.79 lakh for the same release frame. Famous Bollywood critic and film trade analyst Taran Adarsh noted earlier today that ‘Animal movie has sold 1.19 lakh tickets for day 1 of its release per data from national chains’. Sources with a wider data net suggest the film has an advance booking for nearly 2.25 lakh tickets for Friday.
The box office analysts are indicating that Animal could very well match the opening day collection of Sunny Deol’s Gadar 2 which opened at Rs 40 crore. A safe prediction of around Rs 35+ crore first day collection is looking quite on the cards as the buzz for the film is on par with few big releases this year. The 3-day weekend collection of near Rs 90-100 crore is possible if the hype holds true and the film gets good ratings from audience.
Vicky Kaushal’s Sam Bahadur is being touted of having a similar run as OMG 2 that opened with Rs 10 crore on its first day and went to net over Rs 100 crore at domestic box office. Animal vs Sam Bahadur is reminding of a weekend not long gone when the Gadar 2 and OMG 2 rivalled at the box office and both emerged victorious, in a rare win for both audience and the industry.
With both movies seemingly poised for a great start at the box office, all that remains to be seen is how the films fare among critics and audience. Opening day and weekend collections are alright but if the films don’t match the hype, long-run collection prospects tend to take a hit as we’ve witnessed more than enough times. No amount of stardom can sustain a bad film beyond the frontloaded weekend.