Dangal Box Office Collections: Plunders records on Sunday

Aamir Khan’s Dangal has exceeded even the highest of expectations, as a sports-based film without the typical commercial ingredients or a popular leading lady (romantic angles can be a major factor at smaller centres), has recorded one of the biggest days in the history of Indian Cinema.

The abnormally high growth on Sunday and the fact that smaller centres too have shown growth, now means that the film has a very good chance of becoming the highest grosser of the year. The trend is extraordinary over the weekend, because the film opened well on Friday, peaked at multiplexes on Saturday (evening onwards) and then went up further on Sunday with the Christmas holiday giving the film an additional boost of around 5%.

The credit for both the content of Dangal and the kind of numbers that the film has put up at the box office over the weekend – should go almost entirely to Aamir Khan. He has seen it through, right from the scripting stages and casting stages to eventually the record-breaking box office numbers.

Monday and the next couple of days could well decide where the film is heading. If the film falls below the 20 crore mark on Monday, then a 300 crore plus total would be difficult to achieve. If it manages to hold in the range of 22-24 crore, then the 300 crore mark is almost a certainty.

Ticket prices at multiplex chains are down from the weekend levels today, this will have an impact on collections even though the occupancy in the morning continued to remain high – with some places close to Friday levels.

Our LBO prediction has been delayed by a day, because we simply couldn’t pick the trend or analyse it the way we wanted to do it. The picture is more clearer now, so the final prediction will be up in about an hour from now. Do stay tuned for that.