Weekly Box Office Analysis: Brahmastra Tops Worldwide Collections! Exclusive BO Report

Film trade expert Girish Wankhede analyses the box office of last week's releases and films that have continued in theatres for a few weeks, in an exclusive column for Filmibeat.

At last, the jinx is broken, especially for Bollywood. With Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt starrer Brahmastra topping the box office charts in not only India but across the globe with astronomical numbers, the joke is now on Bollywood boycotters.

The first weekend Indian box office number for Brahmastra was superlative and it eventually ended the dry spell, the opening up of new possibilities and the evolution of the contemporary mindset. This ambitious film marked the beginning of the Brahmastra Trilogy, with the second installment Brahmastra 2 aka Brahmastra - Dev slated to release in 2025.

This Indian mythology meets Marvel Comics genre is novel to Indian audiences and the youngsters have lapped it up. Older audiences laughed at the young lingo of the protagonists in the film while the critics sulked at the dialogues. But the film has worked. It's totally a new world out there now and needs a celebration.

Brahmastra India and Overseas Box Office Collection - First Week

Brahmastra opened on Friday, 9 September with record-breaking box office numbers of Rs 36.42 crore, which are one of the highest numbers for any non-holiday release in India. The first Saturday followed with a jump of 15 per cent, making it Rs 42.41 crore, and Sunday followed with a bigger number of Rs 45.66 crore.

The first weekend collection of Brahmastra stood majestically at Rs 124.49 crore, which consolidated its position as a legitimate hit. The first Monday showed a usual drop in collections with a figure of Rs 16.50 crore, and the first Tuesday had a further drop with a figure of Rs 13.25 crore. The five-day total of Brahmastra tallied to Rs 154.24 crore, thus indicating a magical number of Rs 175 crore for Week 1. With this respectable number, it is poised to generate another haul in its second weekend.

Brahmastra was released in India in 5,019 screens and in 3,894 screens in the overseas market. In India, Brahmastra was released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam, and these versions made approximately Rs 17 crore out of the total of Rs 154.24 crore.

Brahmastra did extremely well in the overseas market and topped the box office in Australia, Canada, the US and the UAE. It generated more than Rs 70 crore from the overseas market and that's phenomenal!

Brahmastra registered the fifth biggest collection in the overseas market for an Indian film, after Padmavat, Dhoom:3, Sultan and Dilwale.

Captain Box Office Report

Another lacklustre release was Tamil action-drama Captain, featuring Arya and Aishwarya Lekshmi, which was panned by critics and rejected by the audiences as well. Made on a modest budget of Rs 20 crore, it generated Rs 5 crore approximately in its opening 5 days, making it a losing proposition. Captain generated Rs 1.8 crore on Thursday, 8 September, and went to collect Rs 0.85 crore on Friday, Rs 1.1 crore on Saturday, Rs 0.96 crore on Sunday and Rs 0.49 crore on Monday. It made Rs 5.2 crore in 5 days, which is far below the expectations. The sudden drop on the second day is owing to below-average content and poor word of mouth.

Oke Oka Jeevitham Box Office Report

Oke Oka Jeevitham is a Telugu release, which was shot in Tamil also and released simultaneously. The modern science fiction drama is directed by Shree Karthik and features Sharwanand, Amala Akkineni, Nassar and Ritu Varma. It was released on Friday, 9 September. Its Telugu version made Rs 75 lakh on its opening day. It added another Rs 1.10 crore on Saturday and Rs 1.37 crore on Sunday. The film's BO dropped to Rs 62 lakh on Monday and Rs 48 lakhs on Tuesday, thus generating a total of Rs 4.32 crore only in 5 days.

Pathonpatham Noottandu Box Office Report

Malayalam action period drama Pathonpatham Noottandu released on Thursday, 8 September with huge fanfare. Written and directed by Vinayan and featuring Siju Wilson, Kayadu Lohar, Anoop Menon and Sudev Nair, this ambitious film was scheduled to release simultaneously with its dubbed versions on Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada, but it could not meet the deadline of 8 September for all languages and was released later. The film's Malayalam collection of Day 1 is Rs 1.02 crore, Day 2 - Rs 1.15 crore, Day 3 - Rs 1.19 crore and Day 4 - Rs 1.03 crore. Pathonpatham Noottandu collections dropped on Monday to Rs 42 lakh and to Rs 40 lakh on Tuesday, thus making Rs 5.12 crore in its first 6 days.