‘Kalki 2898 AD’ saw a slow Friday at the box office but managed to keep the audience excited. The science-fiction drama, starring Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan in the lead, collected around Rs 50 crore nett (early estimates) on its day 2, taking the two-day collection to around Rs 150 crore nett.
Directed by Nag Ashwin, it’s being considered a visual spectacle and the collections are expected to grow from Saturday onwards. With Friday being a working day, the India nett collection of Rs 50 crore is good. It is also at par with what Prabhas’s ‘Salaar-Part I: Ceasefire’ earned on day 2. After its two-day business, the Prashanth Neel directorial stood at Rs 147.05 crore nett in India. However, ‘Baahubali 2’, which is the biggest film of the actor’s career, was at Rs 90 crore on the second day. ‘Adipurush’ was far behind on day 2 with Rs 65.25 crore, which now seems too little in comparison.
‘Kalki 2898 AD’ opened at Rs 95.3 crore in India with a gross of around Rs 175 crore worldwide, reported the trade website sacnilk. Interestingly, the drop on Friday came majorly from the Telugu market where it had an opening of Rs 65.8 crore. On the second day, while the Hindi version maintained its Rs 20 crore business, the Telugu version collected in the range of Rs 24–25 crore. This is a strange trend as the drastic drop shouldn’t have come from the market where the film is expected to gain maximum. The opening day business in the Telugu states was around Rs 65 crore nett.
Another interesting trend to gauge is how the weekend might just show some terrific growth in the north, where tickets are finally selling like hotcakes. ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ is expected to have a four-day weekend of around Rs 500 crore. This is only possible when it almost doubles its single-day business in the country. With mixed word-of-mouth, that looks pretty far-fetched right now, but certainly not impossible. Too much depends on the Saturday business, it seems!
Source Agencies
