The result of the first big box-office clash of 2017 is out, and the winner is Raees.
Rahul Dholakia’s Raees has had a good extended first weekend. The film, starring Shah Rukh Khan, is inching towards the sought-after three-figure mark. It earned Rs92.50 crore in its first five days. On Saturday and Sunday, the film got Rs15.50 crore and Rs17.25 crore, respectively, as per figures shared by BoxOfficeIndia.com.
However, going by its collections in the first two days (Rs46.50 crore), Raees was expected to cross the Rs100 crore mark by the first weekend itself. That did not happen as the film did not draw in the crowds as expected on Sunday.
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But as the film has recovered its cost of production, which is approximately Rs85 crore, it has turned into a safe bet for the producers Excel Entertainment and Red Chillies Entertainment. It has already beaten Sanjay Gupta’s Kaabil against which it clashed at the box office on 25 January.
Kaabil has not had an impressive run at the box office. The Hrithik Roshan-starrer collected only Rs54 crore in the extended first weekend of five days. The film did see a 90% jump in collections on Thursday, which was the Republic Day holiday. But it failed to sustain that interest in the days that followed. In the last two days of the week, the film collected Rs23 crore nett.
Kaabil was reportedly made at a budget of Rs60 crore. So, the film has a good chance of going past that figure if it manages a decent run this week.