MUMBAI: Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone starrer Chandni Chowk To China has grossed Rs 330 million (Rs 33 crores) in its opening weekend in India, including paid previews.
Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, Warner Bros India director sales Neeraj Goswami says, "We are happy to have crossed Rs 300 million (Rs 30 crores) mark in India, considering that not many films grossed that amount in 2008. We are happy with weekend numbers."
When queried about public reaction towards the movie and Warner’s expectations of the first week collections, Goswami said, "Well the reaction towards the movie has been mixed. We’ll be able to judge this week’s expectations only once Monday’s collection come in entirely, which should be by tomorrow. But the movie should manage to do well this week since the coming weekend is long. There are new releases this week but every movie has their niche audience."
Slated to release this week is the much acclaimed film Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle along with Vishesh Films and Sony BMG’s horror flick Raaz – The Mystery Continues. These films will find a good window with Monday (26 January) being a holiday.
Chandni Chowk To China released on 16 January. In the US the film was released in 134 cinemas. At the time of filing this story, the weekend overseas collections of the film were not available with Warner Bros.