Pathaan box office: SRK breathes life into Bollywood with ₹51 crore opening
Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan is off to a great start at the domestic box office. Pathaan’s first day figures are among the top openers of all time as War (2019) had collected ₹50 crore nett and 2022’s KGF 2 (Hindi) had done a business of ₹52 crore nett.
As per early estimates, Pathaan’s Hindi version has recorded a phenomenal ₹50-51 crore nett collection on day one at the domestic box office.
Pathaan was released on Wednesday, a day before Republic Day 2023, in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages. Pathaan is directed by Siddharth Anand, and backed up Yash Raj Films.
As per a report by Box Office India, “Pathaan has recorded a phenomenal opening day at the box office as it takes a ₹50-51 crore nett collection in its Hindi version, as per early estimates.” The report added that the action film, which also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, has smashed non-holiday records by leaps and bounds as Bahubali – The Conclusion (Hindi) was the biggest non-holiday opener before Pathaan. The 2017 period film is directed by SS Rajamouli.
On Wednesday, trade analyst Taran Adarsh took to Twitter to share Pathaan’s estimated first day collections at national chains. According to him, the film did a business of ₹25.05 crore till Wednesday evening, which was better than what Hrithik Roshan’s War ( ₹19.67 crore) made on its first day at multiplex chains. He tweeted, “Pathaan at national chains… day 1… update: 8.15 pm. PVR: ₹11.40 crore, INOX: ₹8.75 crore, Cinepolis ₹4.90 crore. Total: ₹25.05 crore. SUPERB. Note: Better than War [ ₹19.67 crore], TOH, Thugs of Hindostan [ ₹18 crore] and KGF [ ₹22.15 crore] – (their) entire day numbers at multiplex chains.”
Earlier, Adarsh had told PTI that Pathaan will revive Bollywood and will mark the beginning of a fantastic 2023 for the film industry. He had said before Pathaan’s release, “The film is going to take a historic start at the box office with opening day collections of ₹45-50 crore. The box office revival will begin with Pathaan, especially looking at its advance booking, which is very rare. It is a great start to 2023 despite being a working day.”
On Thursday, industry tracker Ramesh Bala tweeted about the film’s worldwide box office collection on day one. He said, “Pathaan takes a whopping ₹100 crore plus gross opening at the worldwide box office. No.1 debut in UAE and Singapore.” In another tweet, he said, “Pathaan has crossed $1 million in the US by Wednesday afternoon.”
Even before the release of the film, Pathaan had smashed records with its incredible advance bookings. The advance bookings for Pathaan had opened on January 20. Due to growing demands, theatre owners in many parts of India had decided to have early morning screenings of the film. Amid the Pathaan craze, there were also reports that the film’s morning shows had been cancelled as protests emerge outside theatres in Indore on Wednesday.