MUMBAI: The long weekend is over and the much awaited numbers are in. Aamir Khan has reason to cheer as Ghajini grossed a whopping Rs 893.60 million (Rs 89.36 crores) worldwide in four days including paid previews (24 – 28 December).
While the movie did a business of Rs 700 million (Rs 70 crores) in India till Sunday (28 December); the overseas collections stand at approximately Rs 193.68 million (Rs 19.36 crores or $4 million). The movie was distributed in India by Studio 18 and in the overseas by Reliance BIG Pictures.
The worldwide collections being targetted by the distributors are approximately Rs 1.30 – 1.40 billion (Rs 130 – 140 crores) of which Rs 1.05 – 1.10 billion (Rs 105 – 110 crores) is expected from India and Rs 250 – 300 million (Rs 25 – 30 crores) from the overseas till Thursday (1 January, 2009) night.
Speaking to Businessofcinema.com Studio 18 director domestic theatrical distribution Aman Gill said, "We are overwhelmed to the response to the film. No film has evoked such a craze amongst the audience in a long time. The previous opening weekend figures have been completely destroyed by unheard of margins and the film still is holding very strong on Monday."
This year’s other big grossers Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Singh Is Kinng collected approximately Rs 900 million (Rs 90 crores) worldwide in their opening week.
As was first reported by Businessofcinema.com, Ghajini paid previews on Wednesday brought in collections of Rs 70 million (Rs 7 crores) in India. Thereafter, the film grossed a total of Rs 182.50 million (Rs 18.25 crores) in India on Wednesday and Thursday.
BIG Pictures released the movie across 22 countries in the overseas. It opened with $0.92 million in the Middle East followed by North America with $1.4 million and Australia raking in $254,000 (Australian Dollars).
The film will open in four additional countries that include Myanmar, Uganda, Malaysia and Morocco in the coming weeks. Ghajini also opened simultaneously in Ireland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, New Zealand, Fiji, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
"Ghajini’s performance demonstrates that the overseas audiences are equally accepting of quality action films, which are still a rarity, coming out of India. We are extremely pleased with the film’s opening, which has created benchmarks in various international markets like North America, Australia, The Middle East," said BIG Pictures COO – international film business Jawahar Sharma.
