Dhoom 3 breaks box office records, beats Chennai Express

Yash Raj Films' Dhoom 3 seems to have met box office expectations. Its Hindi version alone has made over Rs 100 crores in its opening weekend itself, setting new records. 

The film has sailed past Chennai Express' record of making Rs 100 crores in 3.25 days, if one counts the paid previews held a day before the film's Friday release.

For Chennai Express, paid previews brought in Rs 6.75 crore, over Rs 33 crore came on Friday, Rs 28 crore on Saturday and Rs 32 crore+ on Sunday, resulting in Rs 100 crore in a matter of a little over three days.

Now Dhoom 3 has managed that well inside three days of release -- including Friday (Rs 33.42 crores), Saturday (Rs 31.25 crores) and Sunday (Rs 36.09 crores), adding up to Rs 100.76 crores.

Add to this the Tamil and Telugu versions, and it totals to a whopping Rs 107.61 crores already.

The film received mixed reviews, some even scathing. But for others, it was a masala affair, resulting in a paisa vasool outing, especially considering the fact that the ticket prices were very steep.

Dhoom 3 has also managed to re-write the rules of marketing and promotion and yet again, it is Aamir Khan who has turned out to be a pioneer. For Ghajini, he took to streets and started giving haircut to willing fans. In case of 3 Idiots, he went incognito and met the aam aadmi in various cities. Now for Dhoom 3, he refrained from making public appearances and even the satellite and online promotion was minimal. 

That was his and producer Aditya Chopra's way of making a subtle and mysterious communication around the film.

All eyes are now on how the film performs over the weekdays.

With close to Rs 30 crores expected over on Monday and Tuesday, an all-important Christmas holiday on Wednesday could well bring in at least Rs 20 crore more. Since the holiday season has started in most parts of the country, good collections are indicated for Thursday as well. 

Since there is no competition in the second weekend for Dhoom 3, the film will comfortably enter the Rs 200 crore club, of which Aamir is the founding member with 3 Idiots.

Note: All collections as per production and distributor sources