Eid pushes Sultan into record books

Nets Rs 180 cr in five days to beat Bajrangi Bhaijan for highest Fri-Sun collection

Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma-starrer Sultan has raked in Rs 180 crore in five days since it released on July 6.

This would mean the movie is set to book profits in the first week itself, considering the cost was Rs 90 crore. Almost 50 per cent of net box office collections goes to the exhibitor/distributors and the other half goes to the producer. The producer's share in earnings would then be around Rs 90 crore).

Producer and distributor Yash Raj Films (YRF) broke a Bollywood tradition to release Khan's film on the day of Eid. Instead of releasing on Friday, as was the norm, Sultan started its box office campaign on Wednesday, to coincide the release with Eid. As luck would have it, Eid was postponed by a day, and so instead of one mid-week holiday, Sultan reaped the benefit of having two holidays at the opening (Wednesday and Thursday). The film collected Rs 36.5 crore on Wednesday and Rs 37 crore the next day. It added another Rs 107 crore over the weekend (Friday-Sunday), to finish the first five days at Rs 180 crore.

Sultan now has the highest Friday-Sunday collection now, beating Bajrangi Bhaijan (2015) which raked in Rs 102 crore in the first three days.

Suniel Wadhwa, independent distributor and box office analyst, said: "The YRF-Salman Khan combination in Sultan has delivered a solid punch at the box office with a record opening. Released in 4,350 screens in India, the film has managed to maintain an average per day collection of Rs 36.20 crore." Adding that the film might shatter more records, he said Sultan had almost achieved in five days what Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Rs 182 crore) and PK (Rs 179 crore) had in seven days.

Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Cinemas, said, "Sultan is set to be one of the top three films of the year without doubt. People have been excited for the film and have appreciated it. At PVR, we have seen almost 25 lakh (2.5 mn) footfalls for the film in the first five days. This is huge. Starting Monday, the collections may fall and it will be critical how the film holds up after the festive weekend."

Internationally, Sultan was released in 1000+ screens and has grossed $14 million (Rs 96 crore approx.) with the North America market contributing $3.2 million (Rs 22 crore approx.) from 283 screens.