Sultan Friday (Day 3) Box Office Collections

Salman Khan’s Sultan is showing extraordinary trends at the domestic box office, as the film is set to record yet another 30 crore plus total on Friday. The film has collected around 32 crore on Friday (as per early estimates on Friday night), which was a working day across the country (even though there was Eid advantage at muslim-dominated centres).

Every circuit is performing, including Mumbai which has held on very strongly on Friday. Gujarat back back at opening day levels, after a small drop in business yesterday. West Bengal and Mysore were rock-solid, Nizam, Bihar and Delhi/UP were outstanding too. Moreover, the advance booking is excellent for the remaining two days in the weekend.

For probably the first time in a very long time, the trend suggests that it isn’t only the content that’s pulling the film through – but Salman Khan’s star power that’s sustaining it at such unbelievably high levels.

We don’t think the word-of-mouth is at Bajrangi Bhaijaan levels, yet people are coming out in big numbers to watch the film. The festive advantage is obviously there, but let’s not forget that it’s Salman who has consistently done films that appeals to his growing fanbase and made it an habit for people to watch his films during Eid.

Given the fact that a national holiday gives a film an advantage of 35 – 40%, the Friday collections of the film are at around 45 crore levels. In fact, every single day of the film so far would’ve been at 40 plus holiday levels, something that even Dhoom 3 hasn’t achieved. To add to it, Sultan hasn’t even released on regional (Tamil, Telugu) versions which can add about 3-5% to weekend collections.

Sultan has already become the 3rd highest grosser of the year in 3 days. The 3-day total of the film is about as much as the lifetime collections of a big film like Housefull 3. The highest grosser of the year – Airlift – will be surpassed in 4 days. And if Sultan holds up well Monday onwards, it could go ahead of ‘The Jungle Book’ in just about 7 days.

Moving ahead, there is Great Grand Masti coming next week, but that film, which is already struggling with piracy concerns (the main reason for preponing the film), will now struggle to get a decent single-screen release. Many single screen theatres, including fixed rentals, will be playing Sultan next week too.. so it pretty much gives Sultan 3 open weeks at the box office, until the release of Dishoom on July 29.

It’ll be interesting to see the trend of Sultan in the next couple of days. Will it sustain at such high levels on Saturday too? If it does, Sunday – the first full holiday for the film – could be yet another record-breaking day.

Sultan Box Office Collections

• Wednesday (Day 1) – 36.54 crore
• Thursday (Day 2) – 37.20 crore
• Friday (Day 3) – 32 crore
• Total Collections - 105.74 crore

Note: These are early estimates, the actuals will be updated on this page at 2PM on Saturday.