Sanju collects Rs 1.2 billion in the first weekend

Sanju is among the top opening weekend collections of all time.
Urvi Malvania reports.

After a better than anticipated opening of Rs 347.5 million on Friday, Sanju continued to attract footfalls throughout the weekend, ending up with a Rs 1.2 billion haul by the end.

The movie, directed and co-produced by Rajkumar Hirani, raked in Rs 386 million on Saturday and followed it up with a record setting collection of Rs 467.1 million on Sunday, bringing the film's three-day collection to Rs 1.2 billion.

This makes it the most successful opening of the year, and among the top opening weekend collections of all time.

Some of the records broken by the film include Baahubali 2: The Conclusion that recorded a first Sunday haul of Rs 461 million and Tiger Zinda Hai's opening weekend haul of Rs 1.14 billion.

It has also beaten Padmaavat (Rs 1.14 billion) and Race 3 (Rs 1.06 billion) to be the highest opening weekend earner of the year so far.

At Rs 1.2 billion in three days, Sanju is now expected to cross the Rs 2.5 billion mark at the domestic box office with certainty.

Starring Ranbir Kapoor in the titular role, along with actors like Vicky Kaushal, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Paresh Rawal and Anushka Sharma, the film opened to mostly positive reviews.

It was released on close to 4,000 screens across the country, and another 1,300 screens abroad (traditional territories like the UK, the US and the Middle East).

It is among the widest distributed films of the year, second only to Salman Khan's Eid release Race 3 (4,300 screens).

While the movie opened to mixed to positive reviews, Kapoor's acting has been universally lauded by critics and moviegoers which is helping it attract footfalls.

Also, Sanju has little to no competition at the movie halls right now, with the only other films being Race 3 and Incredibles 2.

While the animated Disney flick continues to do well in its second week, it does not pose a challenge to a mainstream Bollywood flick like Sanju.

Race 3 was expected to peter out in its second week in any case, given the panning the movie got from the critics, and the split word of mouth.

Sanju is also set to give Fox Star Studios its second big hit of the year after Baaghi 2 collected Rs 1.12 billion earlier this year.

Top five opening weekend collections of 2018:

Source: Industry estimates