As we entered the third week of March, the Indian Box Office became a high-stakes battle-ground between two of the most anticipated films of Indian cinema, 'Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge' and 'Ustaad Bhagat Singh',
Sequel of the Bollywood blockbuster and the Pawan Kalyan starrer are currently going head-to-head in the box office arena.
Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge
Ranveer Singh's spy thriller sequel has been shattering records even before its official silver screen release. The movie collected a staggering Rs 43 crore before its release, through paid previews.
Additionally, the paid reviews or pre-release screenings ran across 11,294 shows with an average occupancy of 64.8%. As per Sacnilk, it then opened with a historic Rs 102.55 crore, the highest opening day collection for a Bollywood movie. With about 21,633 total shows running on day 1, the average occupancy was reported as 67.8%.
Day 2 of the film saw a dip in its collection. However, the numbers were still high as it clocked Rs 80.72 crore after running across 20,125 shows, with an average occupancy of 62.6% on Friday.
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The major occupancy report from Sacnilk, for Day 2, shows NCR with the highest number of screenings, accounting for 2,539 shows; closely followed by Mumbai with 2,113 shows and Ahmedabad with a total of 1,370 shows.
The highest collection was across the Hindi language as it garnered a whopping Rs 78.94 crore alone on day 2. With the day 3 collections currently coming in, Sacnilk reports a total net of Rs 226.27 crore. This pushes the total gross collection of the movie to Rs 269.39 crore.
Additionally, Dhurandhar 2 has collected Rs 64 crore from the overseas market, resulting in a worldwide collection of Rs 333.39 crore.
Ustaad Bhagat Singh
While Bollywood is busy with Dhurandhar 2, Telugu cinema is relishing the return of Pawan Kalyan to the screens. The movie opened with an impressive collection of Rs 34.75 crore. However, Ustaad Bhagat Singh did not hold any paid previews ahead of its theatrical release.
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The first Friday was a bummer for the film as it saw a significant dip in its collection from day 1. As per Sacnilk's report, day 2 collections dropped by 73.4% to a mere Rs 9.25 crore. After running across 3,447 shows, the average occupancy also dropped to 36%.
The major occupancy report includes Hyderabad with 1,028 shows. It is followed by Bengaluru with 501 shows and Vizag-Visakhapatnam with 327 shows.
As the film moves into day three, the total gross collection till the second day was reported at Rs 51.92 crore. The total net collection has been valued at Rs 44 crore.
Additionally, Ustaad Bhagat Singh had collected Rs 7 crore from the overseas market, surging the total gross collections to about Rs 59 crore.
With the opening weekend kicking off for both movies, it remains to be seen whether either of them will pose a challenge for the other at the Box Office.
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