Big box office numbers are all about solo holidays releases today and this was again proven by Sultan.
There was a time when films like Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, Gadar, Devdas, Koi Mil Gaya, Veer Zaara & Om Shanti Om released on a non holiday period or on holiday period with clash.They were the biggest grossers in their year of release. Even Dhoom 2 released in November 2006 managed to come out on to top and beat all the major holiday releases of that year but today that is near impossible.
The daily box office takings have grown to such levels that the 40% extra that a major holiday gives to a solo release today is a very big amount. That extra 40% push was also there ten years ago but it amounted to just 25-30 lakhs then and today it is 12-14 crore. A good holiday period can give you push of 50-55 crore over just 3-4 days if released solo.
Basically non holiday releases & clashed releases have no chance of competing with solo holiday releases today as far as box office takings are concerned. The biggest grossers from now are almost certain to be films that release Solo on the major festive holidays and those where the holidays fall on the right days having the edge. Om Shanti Om is likley to turn out to be the last time that a film became the highest grosser of a year without a solo release.
