Shah Rukh Khan Set To Re-Emerge As King Khan As Pathaan Set To Open Really Big At 50 Crores

King Khan - That's how Shah Rukh Khan was tagged back in time when he was delivering one biggie after another. The last good box office success was back in 2014 though when Happy New Year set the record for the biggest opener ever and gathered 44.97 crores on the very first day. It then also went on to enter the 200 Crore Club and closed at 205 crores.

Unfortunately, the films that followed didn't score. Dilwale and Raees scored a century each but then the expectations were far bigger. However, Fan and Jab Harry Met Sejal didn't work and then Zero was the ultimate low point, so much so that Shah Rukh Khan decided to go on a really long break of 4 years and is returning to the big screen only now. The charm and charisma around the superstar remained intact though and there was practically not a single day in the years gone by when he wasn't spoken about or discussed in the industry circles and media.

Well, all of that has paid off, and how, what with his Pathaan seeing huge hype and buzz around it en route release. The stage was set when the teaser was unveiled and for the longest time, this was the only promotional material that kept the film going. Arrival of Deepika Padukone's Besharam Rang gave hug boost to the film as this Vishal-Shekhar song is the biggest chartbuster of the year gone by. Then there was title track with both Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone that further enhanced the hype. Later, when the promo arrived with John Abraham joining the show as the baddie in charge, it was a sealed deal that Pathaan was set to find a very big opening for itself at the box office.

However, it was still about whether Yash Raj Films was being satisfied with a 40 crores opener or there were plans for something bigger and better in the offering. After all, they themselves have two films which have scored an opening of more than 50 crores each, albeit on holidays. While Thugs of Hindostan was first to score a half century on the day of release, War raised the staked further.

Well, this is where the advance booking of the film came in handy. The production house decided to hold on to the opening of plans for the longest time and now that the advance booking is out there, close to 5 lakh tickets have already been sold. This calculation is basis what has been gathered from the premium multiplex chains - PVR, INOX and Cinepolis. Now one has to take into consideration the fact that Pathaan is also seeing a very huge single screen release, which means in totality the film will arrive at more than 5000 screens.

Taking all of that into consideration and especially the track record of director Siddharth Anand whose War stays on to be the highest grossing Bollywood film [319 crores] since October 2019, it seems like the filmmaker would be the first to break his own record even after close to 40 months have gone by. The industry has been looking for a really big Bollywood film to raise the bar yet again for Bollywood because even though from south there has been KGF: Chapter 2 and RRR which have emerged as big ones, you need a Hindi film to score big too.

Pathaan is one such film which has the potential do so and the indications so far are that first day numbers of 50 crores are on the cards. Yes, it's a non-holiday release but then the man of the moment is Shah Rukh Khan who is set to re-emerge as King Khan. Then, there is this big Republic Day holiday a day later, which means evening and night shows have huge potential to grow further. The stage has been set for Pathaan to really rock-n-roll this Wednesday and a half century on the very first day would be just the kind of 'dhamaka' that the box office needs.