'Fan has become the highest opening-day grosser for the year so far.'
Urvi Malvania reports.
Shah Rukh Khan's Fan, released in around 3,000 cinemas across the country, collected Rs 19 crore (Rs 190 million) on the opening day.
The movie was directed by Maneesh Sharma, whose previous films Band Baaja Baarat and Shudh Desi Romance were critically acclaimed box office hits. Khan plays a double role in the Yash Raj Films (YRF) production.
Suniel Wadhwa, independent distributor and a box office analyst, said, "SRK-YRF teaming up for Fan has collected Rs 19 crore on the first day. With this, Fan has become the highest opening-day grosser for the year so far."
Analysts said with positive reviews, the opening weekend numbers could range between Rs 58 crore (Rs 580 million) and Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million), making it the highest opening weekend of the year so far, beating Akshay Kumar's Airlift, which collected Rs 44.3 crore (Rs 443 million) in the first three days.
A boost in collections was expected to come from urban areas and multiplexes. "Given that Fan is very unlike Shah Rukh's previous films, with no romantic angle, no songs and no slapstick comedy, a large number of audience might not like the change. But the content will resonate well with urban movie-goers who have been exposed to Hollywood films more," said another trade pundit.
With Fan, Khan returns to playing grey characters, a genre that was instrumental in catapulting him to success. His roles in Baazigar and Darr had won him critical acclaim and commercial success.
Experts, however, said the director's treatment of the script and Khan's performance would ensure the movie was profitable, especially with overseas collections.
Fan has been released in 700 screens abroad. The total cost of the film is Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) to Rs 105 crore (Rs 1.05 billion).
The only competition that Fan has would be from Disney's The Jungle Book, which finished its first week with Rs 74.63 crore (Rs 746.3 million) and added Rs 8.02 crore (Rs 80.2 million) on its second Friday, to take the total to Rs 82.65 crore (Rs 826.5 million).
The film has been released in 1,700 to 1,800 screens in India, in multiple formats and languages. Mowgli's jungle adventures are available in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The language dubs have contributed to an overall collection of 53 per cent share.
Jungle Book saw a drop of just 25 per cent on its second Friday compared to its opening Friday collection despite competition from Fan. The film has a universal appeal and it has the potential to cross Rs 100 crore at the box office by the end of the second weekend.
It seems likely that it will become the highest grosser from Hollywood, smashing the record of Fast and Furious. "I won't be surprised if the film makes a total of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) to 175 crore (Rs 1.75 billion)," said Wadhwa.
Currently, Jungle Book is already among the top five Hollywood grossers in India, behind Jurassic Park (Rs 96 crore/Rs 960 million) and Fast and Furious 7 (Rs 106 crore/Rs 1.06 billion).
