MUMBAI: This Eid, the box office crowd will see its favourite Khan on the silver screen. As Salman Khan’s much touted movie Dabangg gets ready to hit theaters this Friday (10 September), the film industry’s hopes and expectations are flying high and why not? The promos of the movie look promising and those in the trade who have seen the film are raving about it.
Dabangg will also see the debut of three different people: Abhinav Kashyap as director, Arbaaz Khan as producer and Sonakshi Sinha as actor.
While traditionally Salman Khan has a greater mass appeal, it is the single screen theaters that bring in the maximum moolah for his films. However, this time round, multiplex chains too are betting big on this Salman Khan starrer.
Dabangg will see a wide release in India across more than 1500 screens and is expected to surpass the collections of Wanted. While Wanted is one of Salman’s biggest hits in recent times, the film had done well mostly in the single screens and in B and C centers. Dabangg, on the other hand, is expected to open to almost 90 – 95 per cent occupancy in multiplexes. Additionally, the fact that Dabangg’s run-time is only two hours will help theaters in accommodating more shows.
Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, Cinemax president – sales, marketing and operations Devang Sampat said, “The hype around the film is good and the opening should be fantastic. We plan to have approximately six shows per screen. The film should open to around 95 per cent plus occupancy.”
PVR Cinemas programming head Prakhar Joshi added, “We are planning to release the film across almost 400 plus screens. This is one of the most anticipated films and I feel the film will have an occupancy of almost 90 per cent plus. Dabangg is going to be even bigger than Wanted.”
Even though the 3D Hollywood flick Resident Evil will be releasing the same day, multiplexes are confident that Dabangg will rule the roost.
Inox Leisure plans to have 15 odd shows of Dabangg, per day, per multiplex. Inox Leisure associate vice president Rajender Singh Jyala said, “It will be one of the widest releases of the year and I believe the film will have one of the highest opening above Rajneeti and definitely way above Wanted. Dabangg is a film that will work in the multiplexes as well as the single screens and all the centers.”
With the immense buzz surrounding Dabangg (which means fearless), it seems the movie will in fact fearlessly rule the box office. This one will be to watch out for!
