Weekly Box Office: Kantara Crosses Rs 100 Crore, Ponniyin Selvan I Worldwide Collections Close To Rs 500 Crore

Film trade expert Girish Wankhede writes exclusively for Filmibeat on last week's box office and analysis of the films.

Kantara Box Office - Kannada And Hindi

The week is again dominated by the release from south India. Kantara is the new flavour of the season. Written, directed and acted by Rishab Shetty, this Kannada action thriller was released in Karnataka on 30 September. It opened with strong numbers, which went on increasing after noteworthy critical acclaim. Its numbers at the box office prompted it to be dubbed in other languages and it opened in Hindi last week. The response has been positive by Hindi moviegoers and the word of mouth is on the rise. This consecutive third influential release after KGF and Vikrant Rona from the Kannada film industry has put it in bright limelight and prompted the Hindi cinema makers to rethink their production approach.

Kantara collected Rs 30.30 crore in its first week in Karnataka, and Rs 42.30 crore in its second week in the state, making it one of the highest grossing films in recent times. On the Friday of its third week, it made Rs 5.54 crore and then rose to Rs 14.30 crore on Saturday and Rs 18.15 crore on Sunday. On Monday, i.e. on its 18th day of release, Kantara collected Rs 8.6 crore, with a grand total of Rs 46.59 crore from 4 days of its third week. By now, Kantara stands at Rs 119.19 crore in 18 days, which is astronomical.

Kantara Hindi Box Office

Kantara in Hindi released on 14 October and it opened with Rs 1 crore on its first Friday. The reviews and word of mouth were fantastic and the film went on to collect Rs 2.50 crore on Saturday and Rs 3.50 crore on Sunday. Kantara's first Monday saw a figure of Rs 1.45 crore, which is quite considerable. Thus, it generated a total of Rs 8.45 crore in four days in Hindi. And looking at the sudden craze around, it is poised to make waves till the Diwali releases of Bollywood.

Doctor G Box Office

The highly anticipated Hindi release of last week was Doctor G, starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Rakul Preet Singh along with Shefali Shah. The medical comedy is directed by Anubhuti Kashyap and it revolves around a male doctor who is interested in orthopaedics but instead ends up in the gynaecology department. Doctor G opened slow but is gradually gaining momentum. On the opening day, it collected Rs 3.87 crore and on Saturday and Sunday, it collected Rs 5.22 crore and Rs 5.94 crore respectively. Its first Monday was quite low at Rs 1.70 crore. The overall box office collection of the first 4 days is at Rs 16.73 crore, which is decent but not great.

Code Name: Tiranga Box Office

Another Hindi release was Code Name: Tiranga, which sank without a trace. Featuring Parineeti Chopra, Harrdy Sandhu and Sharad Kelkar, this spy-action drama made Rs 20 lakh on its opening day, Rs 30 lakh on Saturday and Rs 24 lakh on Sunday. The weekend collection of this badly made and marketed film was Rs 74 lakh, which makes it a sure shot flop.

Vikram Vedha Box Office

The Hrithik Roshan-Saif Ali Khan film Vikram Vedha is steaming out in its third week. This Hindi remake of the hit 2017 Tamil film of the same name is directed by the same directors as the original, Pushkar-Gayathri. The film was received well by the critics but the box office tells a different story.

Vikram Vedha generated Rs 58.57 crore in its first week, but it drastically came down to Rs 15.30 crore in its second week. The Friday of the third week generated Rs 57 lakh and the Saturday rose to Rs 1 crore. Sunday made Rs 1.15 crore but again the collections dropped to a meagre Rs 40 lakh on Monday, its 18th day. The overall collection of Vikram Vedha is now Rs 76.99 crore, which is far below the expectations.

Godfather Box Office

Godfather is a Telugu political action film, which was dubbed in Hindi and was simultaneously released on Wednesday, 5 October. It features Chiranjeevi, Nayanthara and Salman Khan and is the official remake of the 2019 Malayalam film Lucifer.

While Godfather opened strong in Telugu and Hindi and was revered by critics, especially the performance of Chiranjeevi, it could not meet up with the hype it created initially. It boiled down to be just another release. Its first week in Telugu generated Rs 59.70 crore and only Rs 7.70 crore in Hindi. On Friday, i.e, on the 10th day of its release, the Telugu version of Godfather collected Rs 70 lakh, Rs 1 crore on Saturday and Rs 1.4 crore on Sunday.

Thus, Godfather made Rs 62.80 crore in 12 days. The Hindi version collected Rs 12 lakh on its 10th day, Rs 15 lakh on its 11th day and Rs 18 lakh on its 12th day. The film made a total of Rs 8.15 crore in 12 days. The overall total of Telugu and Hindi version now stands at Rs 70.95 crore in 12 days.

Ponniyin Selvan: I Box Office

Ponniyin Selvan: I (PS1) entered its third week with grace. The epic Tamil historical drama is directed by Mani Ratnam and features Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi, Karthi, Trisha, Jayaram and Prakash Raj, along with several stalwarts in this ensemble star studded film with humongous production values.

Ponniyin Selvan generated Rs 176 crore in its first week and Rs 54.85 crore in its second week. On its 15th day, the PS:1 box office collections stood at Rs 3.3 crore and made another Rs 6.75 crore on its 16th day, and Rs 7.55 crore on its 17th day. On the 18th day, i.e. on Monday, the film collected Rs 1.7 crore, which is decent. The overall collections of Ponniyin Selvan are now at Rs 249.75 crore in India, with the worldwide collections set to touch Rs 500 crore (already having made Rs 456.3 crore).