Raees is another box office success but its not much credit to the film but to the star power of Shahrukh Khan. The pull of Shahrukh Khan and that decision to come on Wednesday has pulled the film through.
Raees took an excellent opening of 60% in its morning shows. It was the best opening since Sultan eclipsing the morning shows of Dangal. The opening at most single screens was better than Dangal and at places even better than Sultan which was a holiday.
The star power of Shahrukh Khan has gunned down the star power of Hrithik Roshan in this clash.
Raees did huge on Republic day as it grossed 26.25 crore nett plus making it the highest collections ever on Republic Day beating the figures of Jai Ho in 2014 which was a solo release. More importantly the numbers have come with a clash and it is the highest ever collection that any film has collected on any single day when it has clashed with another major release. Although this number is not the biggest ever or even near but no film has ever done this sort of business with a clash and with the sort of limited capacity it has.
The big clash has turned out to be a one horse race in terms of Worldwide box office as Raees has grossed more than double of Kaabil across the World.
The Overseas business has emerged the biggest plus for the film as its going over $15 million and thats a good number for this type of action film which is devoid of the music and gloss like a Dhoom 3, Bang Bang or Kick. The film should beat Prem Ratan Dhan Payo in Overseas which was more Overseas friendly.
Raees became the sixth film to top 50 crore nett over the first three days for Shahrukh Khan. Only Salman Khan has more films to top 50 crore nett in three days with eight films achieving the feat. Aamir Khan has three while no other actor has more than one release to top the 50 crore nett mark over three days. Shahrukh Khan does not have a record weekend as recently the dates have not been correct.
Raees is the fourth highest grosser for Shahrukh Khan and its a good total for the film as its not that big budget tent-pole event film.
The film itself may have got some appreciation in the form of male audiences that watch in single screens and this is a bit more than the competition Kaabil which could not find any appreciation from any demographic (barring the people who give stars and talk and write about films but they dont really count as its about the real watchers). But this single screen audience is not going to give the numbers expected from a Shahrukh Khan film unless its holiday after holiday or festival period then maybe you can get close.
It has become the problem of Shahrukh Khan films lately where the content is not matching the star pull of the actor. The openings of Dilwale, Fan and Raees may not have been record breakers as far as numbers goes but if the clash and release factors are factored in for Dilwale and Raees and the niche genre of Fan than the numbers achieved by these films initially are huge.
Dilwale and Raees opened at a level where just decent to good reports could have taken them to 200 crore nett and that with both films clashing with major films. Its about a Shahrukh Khan film having the content with universal appeal when that big number will easily come clash or no clash but the hope is that good content film comes when these big initials are coming as if the content keeps on missing the mark then the initial may also start to suffer making the big number harder.
