Ek Tha Tiger box office collections smash opening day record

The Salman Khan-Katrina Kaif starrer Ek Tha Tiger directed by Kabir Khan, released on Independence Day, has had a phenomenal opening day performance at the box office. According to its production house, Yash Raj Films' officials, the first day collections were Rs 32.92 crore, which is by far the highest opening collection for any film so far.

Ek Tha Tiger's collections were 37.5 per cent higher on the first day than the existing record of Hrithik Roshan's Agneepath set earlier this year, which clocked Rs 24 crore. Shah Rukh Khan's Ra.One's collections on Day 1 were Rs 14-15 crore.

 "The film is brilliant," says trade analyst Komal Nahata. "It is a unique love story and has action of the kind Hindi cinema has never seen. The film will do well in coming weeks."

Taran Adarsh, also a leading trade analyst, seconds this view. "The film looks overall good and the action is great," he says. "It opened well yesterday, which was a holiday. Though today is a working day, the film has had around 50 per cent occupancy in theatres, which means collections of around Rs 14-15 crore on Day 2. Normally, films make this such only on Sundays."

Owners of multiplexes which are screening the film are equally delighted. "The response to Ek Tha Tiger has been awesome," says Girish Wankhede, Deputy General Manager, Communications, Cinemax. The film released across 130 of Cinemax's 141 screens across the country.

Unlike Salman's previous recent hits such as Bodyguard, which released on Eid, this film had a Wednesday release globally. In general, most Hindi films release in key markets such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates on Thursdays and in the United Kingdom and the United States on Fridays. Very rarely do Hindi films open on Wednesdays outside India, unless it happens to be Christmas or the Independence Day weekend in the US.

Rafiq Ganjee, Vice President, Marketing and Communications, Yash Raj Films says: "Ek Tha Tiger has opened to a fantastic response, across the globe. The film was released across 3,300 screens in India and also had one of the widest releases in the international arena hitting as many as 550 screens." Overseas too it is said to be raking it in.  It earned revenues of 96,663 pounds (Rs 87 lakh) in a day in the UK and A$72,617 (Rs 42.5 lakh) in Australia.

 "What happened yesterday was a trailer," says Adarsh. "Picture abhi bakhi hai."