Rajkumar Hirani and Ranbir Kapoor’s latest film Sanju has set the domestic box office on fire. After enjoying the biggest opening of 2018, the film has now crossed the first-weekend collection of Salman’s Tiger Zinda Hai (114.91 crores). Now it stands at position 2 after Bahubali – the Conclusion [only Hindi version] (127.28 crores) in the list of highest first-weekend collection. If we exclude Bahubali 2 from the list as it is not a Bollywood film, Sanju created history with the highest first weekend of all time for an outright Hindi film.
As per the box office reports, the film amassed 46.71 crores on first Sunday to take its total domestic box office collection to 120.06 crores after 3 days. Despite being a non-holiday release, the film took the ticket counters by storm. Its first weekend collection is more than 5 crores bigger than Salman Khan’s TZH, which was at position 2 in the list of highest first-weekend collection.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted the collection of the film. “#Sanju sets the BO on ???… Gets #JaaduKiJhappi from the audience… Collects ₹ 46.71 cr on Sun, MIND-BOGGLING… Has an EXCEPTIONAL ₹ ? cr+ opng weekend… Emerges HIGHEST OPENING WEEKEND of 2018… Fri 34.75 cr, Sat 38.60 cr, Sun 46.71 cr. Total: ₹ 120.06 cr. India biz.”, he wrote.
The film has done an extraordinary business in big centers whereas the small centers have also added a decent total to its overall collection. It has no big competition for at least 3 weeks and word of mouth is extremely positive, so crossing 250 crores in its lifetime should not a difficult task. As it does not have any long weekend or holiday, it would be interesting to see how does it fare on weekdays.
Top 5 Opening Weekend biz – 2018
1. Sanju ₹ 120.06 cr
2. Padmavaat ₹ 114 cr [5-day *extended* weekend; select previews on Wed, released on Thu]… Hindi + Tamil + Telugu.
3. Race3 ₹ 106.47 cr
4. Baaghi2 ₹ 73.10 cr
5. Raid ₹ 41.01 cr
Sanju, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, is a biopic on actor Sanjay Dutt. Apart from Ranbir, who plays Dutt, the cast includes names like Paresh Rawal, Manisha Koirala, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Dia Mirza, Vicky Kaushal and Jim Sarbh.
The box office collection of the film is as follows:
Friday (Day 1): ₹ 34.75 cr
Saturday (Day 2): ₹ 38.60 cr
Sunday (Day 3): ₹ 46.71 cr
Total: ₹ 120.06 cr
300 crores on cards. Rajkumar Hirani at his best.