Akshay Kumar’s Toilet Ek Prem Katha has opened to decent occupancy at the box office on Friday, with the average all-India occupancy lower than ‘Jolly LLB 2’ and in the same range as ‘Airlift’ which released in January last year. ‘Airlift’ had a much better start at multiplexes, while ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ is better at smaller centres.
The occupancy at multiplexes was low on Friday morning, so the film has huge potential for growth as the day progresses – depending on the kind of response the content of the film gets.
The level of business in the morning suggests Day 1 collections of around 10-11 crore, a number that should go higher with increase in occupancy noon onwards. ‘Airlift’ and ‘Rustom’ had huge jumps at multiplexes, ‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha’ would need to show similar upward trend to put up a good Day 1 total.
Among 2017 films, it’s the 8th best opening of the year after ‘Bahubali 2’, ‘Raees’, ‘Tubelight’, ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’, ‘Jolly LLB 2’ and ‘Half Girlfriend’. It’s better than ‘Sachin: A Billion Dreams’ at single-screens and smaller centres, while the biopic took a better start at multiplexes.
‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha’ is yet another film this year that hasn’t got a strong initial. Word of mouth will decide the fate of the film.