Rajinikanth’s 2.0 that hit the silver screens yesterday got a thumbs up from fans. In fact, film distributors and producers are mighty pleased with the response that they have received on the first day and are hoping to mint Rs 60 crore. The 4-day extended weekend will also help Akshay Kumar’s south debut. Trade experts even predict that Shakar’s film will break many box office records in Tamil Nadu and might even surpass Vijay’s Sarkar collections soon. However, it is highly doubtful that even with 6200 screens across India, Enthiran’s sequel will be unable to break SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali first day record.
Trade expert Akshaye Rathi explains the reason behind this and it has nothing to with the number of people who watched the movie. In an interview to In.com, Akshaye revealed, “Telugu domestically is a bigger market in terms of the opening potential compared to Tamil, for the simple reason that in Tamil Nadu you have a ticket pricing cap of is Rs.158.” He reasons, “Your ticket in Tamil Nadu will not cost you more than that. So, even the number of sales, the number of footfalls is higher in Tamil, but nett (collection) often looks smaller because the highest ticket price as imposed by the state’s law can be Rs.158 only. And Telugu ticket prices can be whatever and thus the nett collection can be much higher. Thus, the average ticket price here, in case of 2.0 when compared to a Baahubali, Thugs of Hindostan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo or any other movie is much lower.”
No wonder, Baahubali raked in Rs 40 crore in Hindi market alone, while 2.0 will make just half of this figure in the Hindi belt. In Akshaye’s words, “The opening day wouldn't be at par with Baahubali. The simple reason for that is Baahubali in Hindi made Rs 40 plus crore. 2.0 is possibly going to be somewhere around Rs 20 crore.”
Well, guess the comparison of Rajinikanth-Akshay’s 2.0 is Prabhas-Rana Daggubati’s Baahubali is not fair after all. Especially, considering that Baahubali was a Telugu film that was also dubbed in Hindi and other languages. However, with no laws to govern the ticket pricing in its primary market, it would be wrong to assume that 2.0 was not as successful Baahubali.
The silver lining for Rajinikanth and 2.0 team is that trade is very excited about this film. Rathi concludes, “Every film has a life of its own. Enthiran was a terrific film and till date, it remained one of the highest grossers in Tamil cinema. Nobody thought any other movie could go beyond that till a Sarkar happened. And Sarkar again was terrific and it would take a while to be beaten. But here comes 2.0, which now looks ready to break the record of Sarkar. As if 2.0 is not enough in another 5-6 weeks from now there’s another film of Rajnikanth called Petta is coming which is anticipated to do numbers that 2.0 is doing. Records are meant to be broken.”
Well, we couldn’t agree more with Akshaye on this and we cannot wait to see what new records Rajinikanth sets and who manages to break them and create new ones.
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