Armed with the highest number of prints this year for a Bollywood film (1,050 prints in India), Akshay Kumar’s Singh is Kinng is expected to rustle up collections of Rs 40 crore in the first week of its release in Mumbai - the highest for any movie this year.
The movie has already raked in Rs 25-30 crore in bookings (which include Friday’s collections and advance bookings till Sunday) for the first three days and is expected to break the record of other hits of the year, including Race, Jodha Akbar and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.
“Singh is Kinng has had a phenomenal response. The weekend is sold out,” confirmed Gautam Dutta, chief marketing head, PVR Cinemas. By Sunday, PVR is expected to garner about Rs 4 crore across its Mumbai properties.
The Saif Ali Khan and Bipasha Basu starrer Race churned out nearly Rs 2.5 crore in revenues for the multiplex, while Jodha Akbar and Jaane Tu fetched about Rs 2.4 crore and Rs 2.15 crore, respectively.
Other theatre chains, too, are cashing in on the Singh mania. “The occupancy is likely to be about 95 per cent over the weekend, earning nearly Rs 3 crore for us,” said Devang Sampat, vice- president (marketing & programming), Cinemax India. However, with the film playing in 1,400 screens across the country, the occupancy in some multiplexes was in the range of 75-80 per cent on day one.
“The occupancy was slightly lower than expected due to the number of shows across multiplexes on Friday. However, Singh is Kinng has opened to an extremely positive word of mouth and we expect occupancies of 70-75 per cent over the weekend. It is a proper mass entertainer and is set for a long innings at the box office,” said Utpal Acharya, vice-president of programming & distribution at Inox Leisure.
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Studio 18, the worldwide distributors of the movie, has released 1,050 prints (550 physical and 500 digital prints) in India. It has released 300 prints overseas. “Singh is Kinng is estimated to fetch over Rs 40 crore in the first week,” said an executive from Studio18. Rights for the Rs 40-crore film were acquired by the company for a whopping Rs 60 crore from Adlabs Films.
Tushar Dhingra, COO, Adlabs Cinemas said, “The film has had a strong opening in the North clearly because of the content. The film has fared well at an all-India level as well. Singh is Kinng was the only big ticket movie that was released on Friday and with the increase in the number of screens, the movie is likely beat the record of other blockbusters.”
Last year, blockbusters like Shah Rukh Khan’s Om Shanti Om made Rs 36 crore in the first week while Dhoom2 collected Rs 34 crore.