TIGER ZINDAHAI ROARS AT THE BOX OFFICE

The Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer Tiger Zinda Hai is the biggest opener from Bollywood this year with a first-day collection of ~33.75 crore.

The sequel to Ek Tha Tiger has beaten the first instalment. The 2012 movie opened at ~30.75 crore and went on to make ~198 crore in its lifetime in domestic net box office collections after tax.

Tiger Zinda Hai also becomes the third most successful opener for Salman Khan after Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo(~ 39.5 crore) in 2015 and Sultan (~36.5 crore) in 2016.

Tiger Zinda Hai is directed by Ali Abbas Zafar who also helmed Sultan, which had a lifetime domestic box office collection of ~300 crore.

“I am delighted that the film has lived up to the expectations of the fans of India’s biggest action hero Salman Khan and that audiences are enjoying the film across the country and giving us such a huge thumbs up,” Zafar said.

The action movie, however, falls short of the opening day collection of ~41 crore by Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (Hindi dub version).

“Tiger Zinda Hai has delivered on expectations, debuting with almost ~34 crore at the domestic box office and setting a new nonholiday release record. It is also the fourth largest opening day of all time if we exclude Baahubali 2. This performance is despite facing some disturbances in Rajasthan,” said Suniel Wadhwa, independent box office analyst.

The film managed to collect nearly ~2 crore on opening day in Rajasthan despite calls for boycotts after a controversy surrounding Salman Khan’s comments on a caste in the state. Analysts said while the collection from Rajasthan was healthy, there would have been some losses due to these issues.

The outlook for the film in its first weekend is favourable since critics and audiences seem to have mostly positive feedback. “It is the largest audience-to-critic matching score for the second instalment of a franchise,” Wadhwa added.

The film has opened to mostly neutral to positive reviews from critics, being praised for its action sequences in particular. The word of mouth on social media is also positive.

The biggest positive for the movie is the long weekend and a fairly open run at the box office with no major releases in the weeks before or after it hit cinema screens.

Tiger Zinda Hai was released in 4,600 screens across the country and 1,100 screens abroad. According to trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the film opened well in Australia and New Zealand, with collections just shy of ~1.5 crore.

Analysts said the film should cross ~120 crore over the four-day weekend. Salman Khan’s movies tend to have a opening weekend multiplier in the range of 2.5-3.5 times of the opening day collection.

Made for nearly ~150 crore, the movie also stars Paresh Rawal, Angad Bedi and newcomer Sajjad Delafrooz.