The harsh word-of-mouth for its action adventure Thugs of Hindostan is catching up with Bollywood production house Yash Raj Films. The Aamir Khan-Amitabh Bachchan film that is touted to be YRF’s biggest project till date opened to a record-breaking Rs 50 crore last Thursday but has witnessed a downward turn since, slipping to Rs 28 crore, Rs 22 crore and Rs 17 crore on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively. Trade website Box Office India pointed out that the fall on Sunday was higher than the other two days, which is hugely disappointing given that most films make most of their earnings on that day.
“The downfall continues, Thugs of Hindostan gets weaker with each passing day. The writing is clear on the wall, (the film) will find it tough to sustain Monday onwards,” tweeted trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
Overall, the Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan-starrer has made Rs 117.50 crore in net box office collections from over 5,000 screens in India with almost 50% of its earnings coming in on day one. Trade experts point out that the opening weekend collections should have been far higher had there not been such steep drop in collections each day. The film is one of the biggest Diwali disappointments in recent times as far as theatrical collections go though Yash Raj has earned nearly Rs 140 crore from the sale of satellite and digital rights. The overall budget of the film is estimated to be close to Rs 200 crore. Going by the current trend, Thugs of Hindostan will struggle to hold its own in days to come. The collections are expected to dip drastically during the weekdays. In a scenario like this, the film, in all likelihood, will miss the Rs 200 crore-mark.
The Aditya Chopra produced mega-budget movie released in record number of theatres (5,000 screens) amid huge hype, expectations and promotion. Massive advance booking helped it get an earth-shattering response at the ticket counters. Thugs of Hindustan collected over Rs 50 crore net at the Indian box office on the first day and become the biggest opener of 2018.