Box Office Records that Chennai Express chases!

With less than a month to go for Rohit Shetty’s Chennai Express to release in theaters worldwide and like any other Shahrukh Khan Starrer the trade has humongous expectations. The film is all set to take centre-stage during the extended Eid weekend starting 8th August with a wide release all over.

From what we have seen Chennai Express looks like a complete family entertainer with action, comedy, romance and good music. So lets see what are the box office records that Chennai Express chases during this holy festival of EID :-

First day : The first day record is currently held by Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger, which collected Rs 32 crores on Day 1. Although 8th August (Thursday) marks the end of Ramadan, it isn’t a national holiday. So, ETT’s record is likely to stay. Chennai Express till has a chance though - Possible but not probable.

Biggest day : Another record that currently belongs to Ek Tha Tiger, which was achieved on 15th August last year. For Chennai Express, its the 2nd day  i.e., 9th August is a national holiday for Eid-ul-fitr which means it stands a fair chance to beat this one but then again it won’t be easy. Shahrukh Khan’s last solo-holiday release Ra One collected Rs 25 crore on Day 2, which was a record for the highest single day collections before the release of Ek Tha Tiger.

First Weekend (3 days): The target is 65 crores set by last year’s Christmas release Dabangg 2. This record will be in the firing line as Chennai Express has to average only 22 crores in the first 3 days. With Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara being postponed, this record is very likely to be broken.

First Sunday : Salman Khan’s last release Dabangg 2 currently holds the top spot as it collected a massive 25 crores on its first Sunday (3rd Day). It will be interesting since Chennai Express releases on Thursday and Sunday will be it’s 4th day, so it would also depend on word-of-mouth.

Fastest to 100 Crores : Salman-Katrina starrer Ek Tha Tiger was the fastest to enter the much-hyped 100 Crore Club in just 6 days. This records is most likely to be broken as SRK-Deepika Starrer Chennai Express enjoys an extended 4 Day weekend with two national holidays apart from the opening day itself.

First Week (7 days): Another record held by last year’s EID release Ek Tha Tiger which went on to collect 135 crores in 7 days. Chennai Express needs to average close to 19.5 crores to beat ETT and if the word-of-mouth is good/excellent then Chennai Express could surpass this one too.

Second Weekend: With 34 crores in it’s second weekend, the 2009-10 record currently held 3 Idiots remains unbroken. Content will be the absolute king, if Chennai Express has to come anywhere close. To make things more difficult OUATIMD will be releasing a week after so this is record is highly improbable. But still if it does, the one that follows will finally be history!

Lifetime Collections : The biggest of the lot! Ek Tha Tiger came close but couldn’t surpass the collections of the biggest blockbuster the industry has seen in the last decade – 3 Idiots. This year’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani too came within 10 crores, but couldn’t cross the line. So will Chennai Express be that film is the big question, also keeping in mind its favorable genre. The increased ticket prices, festive season, wider release will help, but a lot would also depends on the repeat audience and the word-of-mouth the film carries. Also the release the release of OUATIMD on 15th August, Madras Cafe on 23rd August and Satyagraha on 30th August will have a impact on the box office collections.

Chennai Express is likely to release on 3500+ screens across the country. So then , those are the 9 records that Chennai Express chases when it finally releases this EID. The film is capable of smashing all of them – except the second weekend record of 3 Idiots.

Lets see what’s in store for us this EID.

Do tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Article by Ashish Gupta (tweets @Ashish515)