New Delhi: Rajinikanth’s latest magnum opus ‘2.0’ (review)—released in 10,000 screens worldwide—has recorded box office collections of ₹70 crore on the 1st day, across Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions, said trade experts, with numbers still trickling in. The Hindi version alone accounted for about ₹23 crore, a stellar performance that industry experts attributed to the presence of Akshay Kumar in the movie.
‘2.0’ has also notched up Chennai City’s highest ever 1st day box office collections. At ₹2.64 crore, the S.Shankar-directed film has beaten Diwali release ‘Sarkar’s ₹2.37 crore, reflecting Rajinikanth’s power on home ground. ‘2.0’ recorded ₹18.2 crore in box office collections from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on the 1st day, and ₹8.25 crore in Karnataka. At ₹4.15 crore, ‘2.0’ is the fourth highest non-Malayalam opening day grosser in Kerala, after Vijay’s ‘Sarkar’ (₹5.62 crore), ‘Baahubali 2’ (₹5.45 crore) and ‘Mersal’ (₹4.65 crore).
According to trade website Box Office India, North India too has recorded good box office collection on the 1st day—with Delhi and Uttar Pradesh at ₹4.75-5 crore and East Punjab at ₹1.90 crore. East India has fared well too, with Bihar collecting around ₹1.25 crore on the 1st day.
Box Office India also said that the Hindi version of ‘2.0’, which released in 4,150 screens, registered about 40% occupancy on its opening day and notched up the eighth highest opening of the year, as far as Bollywood offerings are concerned. Here it needs to be taken into account that North India is not Rajinikanth’s domain while most other films with higher openings—including ‘Thugs of Hindostan’, ‘Baaghi 2’ and ‘Gold’—benefited from a national holiday period.
‘2.0’ also did good business overseas on the 1st, mopping up $295,000 in box office collections in the US, NZ$ 23,243 (about ₹11.11 lakh) in New Zealand and A$114,696 (about ₹58.46 lakh) in Australia.
The record for the highest opening day for an Indian movie is held by ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’ that made ₹121 crore in 2017.
Earlier in the week, online ticket booking site BookMyShow reported that the S.Shankar-directed film, featuring Akshay Kumar alongside Rajinikanth, crossed the 1 million ticket sales mark—as far advance ticket booking was concerned.
“We have seen a phenomenal response for advance ticket bookings for ‘2.0’. It has been one of the most awaited films of the year and this has reflected well on the ticket sales so far. BookMyShow has sold over one million tickets in advance sales across all the three languages and formats, with 3D dominating the sales,” said Ashish Saksena, chief operating officer (cinemas) at BookMyShow.
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Much of the burden for the recovery of 2.0’s ₹510 crore investment still rides on its theatrical business. While the satellite TV rights have gone to the Zee Network for ₹110 crore, about ₹80 crore has come from Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions for distribution rights of the Hindi version.
