Box office report: Ek Tha Tiger grosses Rs 110 crore in six days

Salman Khan-starrer Ek Tha Tiger has crossed the Rs 100-crore mark at the box office (grossing Rs 110 crore in six days), becoming the actor's fourth film on the trot to do so. The film released on a Wednesday (August 15, Independence Day) and took advantage of four holidays in its first six days at the box office, including the Eid holiday on Monday.

The collection from the extended weekend is estimated at around Rs 94 crore. Preliminary estimates put Monday's numbers at around Rs 16 crore.

Ek Tha Tiger has broken many records, including collections for the first day, first three days and first weekend. It also beat the record of Rs 100 crore in seven days set by Khan's own blockbuster Bodyguard.

This week's collections will indicate how big the lifetime total could be.

It is still difficult to say whether the movie will cross the record of Rs 203 crore set by 3 Idiots. The Aamir Khan-starrer ran for many weeks and got a sizeable repeat audience. It grossed Rs 56 crore in its second week, while Salman Khan's Dabangg and Bodyguard, with lower repeat value, collected Rs 36 crore and Rs 20 crore respectively in their second weeks.

While 3 Idiots was a multiplex favourite, Salman Khan's fan base is bigger at single screens, where ticket prices are less than half of those at multiplexes. It has to sustain for a longer time than 3 Idiots to collect the same amount.

Most other films released before Ek Tha Tiger were crushed under the Salman Khan wave.

Previous releases, such as Jism 2 and Gangs of Wasseypur 2, have collected Rs 34 crore and Rs 19 crore from the box office so far. While Jism 2 can be called a successful film, local distributors in many states overpaid based on the hype it generated and lost money.

Gangs of Wasseypur 2 has done below-average business despite good reception from critics. From Wednesday onwards most of the screens across the Hindi film belt are showing Ek Tha Tiger, and other movies haven't collected much.

This Friday (August 24) will see the release of four films - The Expendables 2, Delhi In A Day, From Sydney With Love, and Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi.

If Ek Tha Tiger holds up well, these films will find the going tough at the box office. Still, August 24 may be better for these films than August 31, when another superstar movie will be released - Disney-UTV's Akshay Kumar-starrer Joker. That means these four films will have to do most of their business in the first week as not many screens will be left for them when Joker is released.

Three other films are scheduled for release on August 31. With several big films lined up over the next month, these small films don't have many options either.

Note: All numbers are net domestic box-office collections. Net is gross box-office collections minus taxes applicable.
Numbers source: BoxofficeIndia.com