MUMBAI: Sajid Nadiadwala produced Housefull has finally broken the jinx at the Indian box office. The first movie of the summer has opened well across India and is likely to do a net business of Rs 300 million (Rs 30 crore) in its opening weekend.
The multi-starrer did a net business of approximately Rs 90 million (Rs 9 crore) on Friday and followed it up with Rs 100 million (Rs 10 crore) on Saturday taking the net total of two days to Rs 190 million (Rs 19 crore). Sunday’s net business of the movie is estimated to be in the range of approximately Rs 110 million (Rs 11 crore).
Until now, 3 Idiots holds the record of the highest opening weekend (Friday – Sunday) net box office collections of Rs 410 million (Rs 41 crore), followed by Ghajini Rs 300 million (Rs 30 crore) and My Name Is Khan Rs 300 million (Rs 30 crore). With its opening weekend performance, Housefull now joins this elite club.
Housefull is also Akshay Kumar’s highest opening weekend performer. His previous highest opening movie was Singh Is Kinng, which did a net business of approximately Rs 260 million (Rs 26 crore) in India in its opening weekend.
However, it remains to be seen how the movie holds up at the box office from Monday onwards. The net collection of the movie on Monday is likely to drop in the range of Rs 35 – Rs 40 million (Rs 3.5 – 4 crore).
Cinemax India senior vice president Devang Sampat said, “On Friday, Housefull had a remarkable opening up to 5 pm shows with prime shows still to perform. We saw 41,000 out of 46,000 footfalls across 29 properties for Housefull only. All screens of Cinemax were 100% full.”
Fun Cinemas AVP programming Bhumika Tewari added, “Housefull is houseful at all Fun Cinemas properties across India i.e. Fun V3S Delhi, Agra and Ambala playing only Housefull in all screens in these properties.”
Housefull stars Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Ritiesh Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone, Jiah Khan, Boman Irani, Randhir Kapoor and Chunky Pandey. It is directed by Sajid Khan and presented by Eros International. The movie was released across 750+ screens in India.
