New Delhi: Superstar Salman Khan’s Eid release ‘Sultan’ is set to break many records at the box office, it seems. The movie starring him in the role of wrestler Sultan Ali Khan has bagged whopping Rs 36.54 crore on the opening day.
Bollywood trade analyst Taran Adarsh shared the collections of the first day on his Twitter account.
With such humongous figures, Sultan has become the highest day one grosser of 2016, beating Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Fan’ that minted Rs 19 crore on its release day. Besides, considering the long festive weekend the movie could break all the previous box office records on Bollywood.
Sultan was released on Wednesday in 5450 screens - 4350 in India and 1100 overseas. Even with such a widespread release, the film witnessed advance booking and house full boards at the theatres.
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‘Sultan’, undoubtedly, has become the highest grosser of 2016 but it is not the best performer as far as Salman Khan’s own films are concerned. The sports drama has failed to beat the first day collection of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, which had garnered Rs 40.35 crore on first day of release last year in November.
However, ‘Sultan’s high voltage performance at BO would be a respite for the Bollywood, which hasn’t witness any major hit apart from Akshay Kumar’s ‘Airlift’ and ‘Housefull 3’in the year so far. Only these two movies have managed to rake more than Rs 100 crore at the box office in 2016 till now.
Even SRK’s much hyped ‘Fan’ fell flat at the box office after the blockbuster opening weekend, and ended its run with Rs 82.53 cores as the lifetime collection.
“We understand that, and have allocated 80 per cent shows to Sultan on Wednesday across our 252 screens and will follow the similar strategy for the long week. This will surely be the biggest blockbuster of the year till date,” said Devang Sampat, Director – Strategy Initiative, Cinepolis India.
Sultan features Salman as a rustic wrestler from Haryana who goes on to win medals for the country, but loses his way after that. The plot revolves around how he reinvents his wrestler streak in mixed martial arts.
