Box office: Total Dhamaal bags an impressive Rs61 crore in its first weekend

Director Indra Kumar’s Total Dhamaal, the third film in the Dhamaal franchise, had a good collection on its first Sunday yesterday. The film, starring Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jaaferi, earned Rs25 crore on Sunday in India, as per figures shared by Boxofficeindia.com.

The film collected a total of an impressive Rs61 crore in its first weekend. It is the second highest first weekend collection of the year so far, after last week’s release Gully Boy, which had fetched Rs71.25 crore nett.

It may be noted that the budget of director Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy is much lesser than Total Dhamaal. The film, starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, is made at a budget of Rs75 crore, while Total Dhamaal's budget is an estimated Rs105 crore.

Total Dhamaal review: This insane comedy is for six-year-olds

Total Dhamaal has been released on 3,700 screens across India and 786 screens in overseas markets. It has a long way till it recovers its cost of production. It needs to keeps its momentum going in the weekdays starting today and then earn well in the second weekend too if it wants to become successful at the box office.

This is arguably the biggest opening for the franchise. Dhamaal (2007) and Double Dhamaal (2011) had opened to Rs2.38 crore nett and Rs7.56 crore nett, respectively.

The two earlier films had been released on 800 and 1,800 screens in India, respectively. Made on an estimated budget of Rs19 crore, Dhamaal had earned Rs32.51 crore nett in domestic business. Double Dhamaal, made on a budget of Rs29 crore, earned Rs45.05 crore nett in its India business.

Director Kumar has now scored a personal high as Total Dhamaal is the biggest opening for any film directed by him. Total Dhamaal hasn’t received positive reviews and word-of-mouth. But the child-friendly content seems to have worked for the film.