Finance
Today, the only question that remains is whether Rajkumar Hirani’s immigration saga ‘Dunki’ can assist Bollywood’s King, Shah Rukh Khan, in scoring a hat-trick, ending his four-year exile from the big screen. Undoubtedly, 2023 will be known as the Year of Shah Rukh Khan.
With Tamil director Atlee’s vigilante actioner ‘Jawan,’ starring SRK, Nayanthara, and Vijay Sethupati, crossing the box office collections of the year’s other big hit, Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel’s ‘Gadar 2’ in just nine days, SRK now holds the distinction of leading this year’s two certified blockbusters — ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Jawan.
With total collections (including 18% GST) of Rs 21.90 crore and Rs 20.20 crore on the eighth and ninth days, respectively, ‘Jawan’ has hauled in Rs 696 crore globally, compared to ‘Gadar 2’ worldwide collection of Rs 679.69 crore (including domestic gross receipts adding up to 615.81 crore) on the film’s 35th day, according to the trade website, Bollywood Hugama.
Ramesh Bala, a trade expert, predicts that if ‘Jawan’ achieves entry into the Rs 1,000 crore club, mirroring the success of ‘Pathaan,’ it would represent a “rare occurrence” for Hindi cinema.
He also stated that ‘Jawan’s’ worldwide earnings propelled it past ‘Gadar 2’, which has been a domestic-market phenomenon with its loud anti-Pakistan theme.
And, as Karan Taurani of Elara Capital points out, ‘Jawan’ has no meaningful competition in the near future, for the next Hindi releases (planned for September 28) are ‘Fukrey 3’, which has a niche audience, and Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s ‘The Vaccine War’.
“Maybe the hype for ‘Jawan’ will slightly simmer down by September 28, but the new release won’t have much of an impact,” Taurani noted. He added, though, that Agnihotri’s popularity after ‘The Kashmir Files’ is likely to make ‘The Vaccine War’ a stronger contender.
Bala, a careful observer of the southern market, predicts that the worldwide gross receipts of ‘Jawan’ would exceed Rs 750 crore this weekend, while the net collections (without GST) in the South will exceed Rs 400 crore.
Bala anticipates that the film’s international collection will exceed Rs 900-1,000 crore by its third weekend, especially because cinema occupancy has recovered to pre-Covid levels.
If theaters in Japan, China, and Russia pick up the film, the total gross collection will increase even further.
Source:IANS
