Kaabil Box Office Collections + Our take on alleged inflation

Hrithik Roshan’s Kaabil has done well in its first extended weekend at the box office, collecting Rs 67.46 crore in the first 5 days of its release. The big days came on Tuesday (holiday for Republic Day) and Saturday.

The film opened very well on Sunday too and business was excellent through the day before the T20 cricket match affected the business of both Kaabil and Raees, 7PM onwards.

Monday will decide where Kaabil goes. Good holds during the weekdays will ensure that Kaabil will retain most of its shows and also get the bigger capacity screens. The audience who watched Raees (which was clearly the first choice in the first weekend) could opt to watch Kaabil in theatres this coming weekend.

If the trend doesn’t fall in favour of the film, the Roshans have only themselves to blame for going ahead with clash and ruining a potential big grosser for Hrithik Roshan. Even a top superstar like Shah Rukh Khan decided to avert the clash with Sultan, quickly realising that noone can challenge the might of Salman Khan during the Eid weekend – even though he had a film that was tailor-made for the Eid period. Raees will lose money too because of the clash, but SRK has clearly won the perception game here which should help him keep the Christmas 2018 weekend all for himself.

Side note: There has been a lot of debate over the ‘inflated’ box office collections of Kaabil and we’ve been talking to a people in the trade about all the figures that have been doing the rounds. We’ve also been gathering collections from various circuits as well as multiplex chains. The actuals or the ‘truth’ lies somewhere in between. The collections are nowhere as low as what’s being quoted as the ‘trade number’, nor is it as high as what the producers have been quoting.

It’s high time for the industry to get an independent credible source, which works with producers, distributors and exhibitors – verifies and reverifies the figures with multiple sources – before putting out the final numbers. Even though it’s impossible to release accurate figures on a daily basis, numbers could be put out after the weekend or at the end of the first week.

In a clash like this where ego, perception and reputation built over entire careers are at stake, absolutely anything is possible. There is no source that’s ‘holier-than-thou’ here. Smart manipulation of figures can happen at every level, even at the exhibitor (theatre) level and those who are willing to shell out money, can get anything done. The smallest of margins can make the good to look excellent and the average to look poor. The game is in the smallest of margins.

More on this soon in a more detailed article.

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166 Comments

  • America has BoxOfficeMojo, a site which is reputable and one that all collections can be trusted.

    In India, every “trade analyst” wants to release their figures first and half the results are based on guesswork around a sample size rather than a proper Pan India collection base.

    Also, these “trade analysts” aim is to get favor by stars and even something simple like a retweet on twitter and they start showing favoritism.

    In the western world things are done much more independently and so there is higher credibility levels. Hence why you see a more accurate split between these two movies.

  • Wow! Kaabil inflated (manipulated) just 9 crs, u lost ur mind but HNY inflated 9 crs on First day only but no articles were there on it! A big applause for u Indicine

  • THANKS FOR ARTICLE…kindly check sunday collections…..i agree with Xzone my friend….

    how come only 2 cr difference from Raees….

  • Indicin you are doing great & hard work..
    Thank you..
    Plz also update list of top actors accodance to overseas grossing…
    And also write an article on all major bollywood clashes till date..
    Again Thank you..

  • @indicine u may use any adjectives to glorify Salman Khan like might of Salman Khan but the truth is that SRK is way ahead as far as initial pull is concerned the day Salman or Aamir can click 26 cr with a clash on a non holiday that day I’ll consider them bigger than SRK till then it’s my humble request not to use adjectives for them before SRK as they are still smaller than him irrespective of big grossers on holidays with single releases

  • Yes..nice article indicine, mr.roshan playing wonderful game. BOI not inculdiing other languages of kaabil, but we can only add maximum of Rs.3cr to their regional language collection. Mr roshan give inflated figure, Thats truth.

  • “We’ve been talking to a people in the trade about all the figures that have been doing the rounds. We’ve also been gathering collections from various circuits as well as multiplex chains.”

    Seriously? Why suddenly you guys are taking pain to do all these now? Why didn’t you guys bother and blindly took what the makers threw during Krrish3…….even though there have been request and allegations from other fans and posters on indicine during that time…………Now, since the movie is clashing against your favourite star, you are trying to justify or bring down the opponent…!

    Politicians are better than you @indicine…….if you take a stand stick to it…..you said you will take producers figure, then no matter what happens you should have stuck to it…..but now since you have opened the can of worms, there is doubt on all the “inflated” figures……including your favourite stars opening record of 44 cr………but i guess you don’t have time for that since lot of water has passed under the bridge since then…………right?

    One good thing, even though just to make your fav look good, and just for namesake on paper you are trying to admit that there are inflated figures going round……..well, we have been aware of it since almost a decade……..good you guys woke up now……..anyway, jab jaage tab savera.

  • Thank you for pointing out the fact that figures are actually inflated even though not as much as trade figures. As you said we really need an independent and reliable source for box-office cause producers are playing dirty games to save their ego during clash. Raees has clearly won while Kaabil is decent too, no need for fake collections.

  • @indicine, If the collections were actually inflated, won’t the producers have to pay more entertainment taxes than required?
    Kindly clarify.

  • Dear saksham, very nice curiousity though hence I would like to answer few. My answers are hypothetical and may be this is the case so here they are. Many people associates with boxofficeindia may be are those who have been in this business for long long time. Also may be many of them are top b-school management graduates or mass communication graduates with immense love and interest for page 3 journalism. Also many of them may be have worked with companies like mccensey & co., ac nielson org marg or many more in the past which help them to extract datas scientifically and professionally. Also what differentiates them is their unique approach and fearlessness to publish real time datas which help them in building immense popularities and credibilities among trade and people which further enhances their raport among distributers and exhibitors. Now They are boxofficemojo, the numero uno of india as for as box office collecting sites are concerned which is big compliment in itself, what makes it even more incredible is they are doing it in country like india where still paper tickets are done and book keeping journels and ledgers are done manually. In such scenerio I agree with indicine exact and 100% accuracy is fictitious dream but 2 % +/- is what they are doing at best. Thats one reason and gut feeling people have for them resulting in more trust even compare to the producers. This is the truth . Once trust is gone nothing gives u back. This is true with everyone. Lets say taran adarsh and komal nahata, its shame now even 3rd class people like kamaal r khan is also wresting with them and getting things dirtier in the mud but what they should not forget is only pig like kamaal will enjoy this. Which also roshans should not forget. Once aamir comes with rentrak to extract figure for PK things were clear, we know their was no deviation between boi and rentrak figures and its surprising they were publishing even before official figures. Standard is set since than everyone is very very careful. Look at shahrukh he didnot fudge raees collection even by a whisker and look at kaabil they r proving themselves a looser nothing else. Who will trust them now. In 5 years down the line taran adarsh and nahta will be history as they will have no takers. This business about trust and once thats gone they will be venished as in this societial marketing world noone can cheat on consumers for long. Roshans taran and nahta have dug their grave by themselves by cheating on their loyal fanbase nothing else. Its very easy to follow the easier roote but being role models this is not expected from them. Thanks.

  • I’m sure that the Sunday collections r not low as 12.5 quoted by so called BOI….
    Kaabil was performing at Thursday (Rday) level in morning and noon shows but there was a drop in night shows So collections r definately not low as 12.5 ….
    and almost every site including indicine was saying that it is neck to neck and ahead in many centres than Raees in Metro cities and down south was strong too…
    Don’t know why these people blindly trust BOI .They keep changing verdict ,keep reducing collections , underreport many times ,still just they have Old data doesn’t make them Official Box Office Site in India…
    .
    Industry needs a solution to this and @indicine wht figures should we believe now as u r saying both BOI and Prod fig r Wrong ???

  • Everybody worry about Kaabil collection, but nobody thinking about Raees collection. Raees collection also manipulated

  • Kabil doing excellent business as per it’s genre . it didn’t get enough screens also. weekend business of kabil is very good means multiplex audience support this movie
    next weekend kabil can be higher than raees

  • HNY collected 44 crs per producers and 36 crs per trade (BOI) also huge difference in Lifetime collections. No one gave a damn to check and highlight it and now crying over Kaabil’s collections. This industry is filled with double standard and hypocrites, the rule is rule even for a fool and intellectual. You cannot have different rules for different people. Hope someone stands up and take this up to end the mess once for all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • With all due respect indicine. Why is the collection of RAEES of both trade and producer equal unlike Kaabil? If you think kaabil’s collection is real why trade doesn’t say so? Do boxofficeindia have a problem with hrithik?

    Kindly answer it.

  • *//

    Even a top superstar like Shah Rukh Khan decided to avert the clash with Sultan, quickly realising that noone can challenge the
    might of Salman Khan during the Eid weekend – even though he had a film that was tailor-made for the Eid period.

    *//

    The above statement speak for it. SRK fans should stop giving YRF and Adi excuse to postpone Raees from Eid 2016. It is very clear what trade and exhibitors wanted on Eid, though Raees would have clicked with masses during Eid as well. Despite that Sultan was hot in the trade and always a preferred product to release during Eid. This sums up the difference between Salman and SRK.

  • @JC : 5:16 pm

    You nailed it !!!!!!!

    @Indicine : 2 days ago you were saying it is impossible to track the accurate collections specially single screens and interior belts and now you have come up with this. I am sure you would have spoken to handful of people and those who are in favor of your likings instead of getting to bottom of truth. Why this painful effort for Kaabil ? Why it was not there for HNY ?

  • /* If these rumors are true, it doesn’t suit a veteran like Rakesh Roshan to get himself indulged into such unethical practices. */

    @xzone do you want to say that such things suit your Duniya ka sabse bada superstar? Or you meant he isn’t a ‘veteran’???

  • So it is well established now that there is a malacious campaign against hritik by so called trades(read boi).i wonder what are the reasons for doing so.may be they r not bribed accordingly as they used to.by the way i have watched both kaabil and raees.there is no doubt kaabil is better movie than raees bt raees is also not bad as hny or dilwale or fan.and i think rakesh roshan sir has done good job by not shifting the date and kaabil proved it.yes kaabil can earn more bt it is the stupidity of raees team.and kaabil is already hit bt despite raees earned more than kaabil it has long way to be hit due to huge production cost.weekend businees always gd for sharukh movie becoz his fans are dont care (or fool enough to judge) whether it is gd or badbt after weekend his recents movies always crashed.

  • Kaabil, a better film undoubtedly.
    Weekend belonged to Raees, but from the monday Kaabil is going to rule and next week Kaabil will earn more screens.
    Word of Mouth, Kaabil is ahead.

  • Its not BOI, even other sites give there estimates at late night. But producers figure of Kaabil is aways 2-3 crore higher

  • The manipulations term is being used by fans as a as on need basis. They don’t talk about manipulations of CE and HNY, D3 or Dangal, PRDP or ETT but they only talk about manipulations of HR. Because he is the only one in industry who is giving tough fight to Khans. Whenever HR movie earns more than Khans movies they talk about manipulation otherwise they keep very low.

    Even in this clash, everyone has praised Kaabil and it is carrying excellent WOM. So obviously it should have occupancy on par with Raess which is quite happening last 3 days. This is worrying SRK fans. So they talk about manipulations.

  • @hritik
    And noone blindly supports BOI. Its the same BOI who updated HAHK from 68 to 72 cr, and footfalls from 5 cr to 7 cr, but decrease both collections+footfalls of both DDLJ and Raja Hindustani.
    OK even I accept HNY was 36 crore, but mind you PRDP was also not 192 crore and ETT was also not 199 crore. That says it all.

    And its not BOI, every other trade websites early estimate are given in late night. That happened in Indicine too for 2 days. But actual figures are always 2-3 cr higher

    Its not BOI, its every other people in trade!!!!!!

    And Raees in no PRDP. PRDP was solo, manipulations wouldnt make difference, but Raees was touted as ‘done or gone’ for SRK, so vacillation is blatant.

    @Indicine
    In Christmas 2018 Avatar 2 is releasing!!!

    Hope u publish this!!!

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