When regional films come into play they have to be compared in GROSS as this is the number collected at the box office which gets distorted with different rates of Entertainment Tax across India. A Tamil film is tax free in Tamil Nadu where most of its revenue comes from while Hindi films have a huge tax of 65% in UP. Also Entertainment Tax is lower generally in the South.
Below are the top fifteen opening day grossers in India. The list includes all films released in India and all figures are GROSS (this is because there are different taxes and while Hindi film variance between NETT and GROSS will be 1-3%, it is much more when compared with South films due to lower taxes). Also all languages included for all films.
1. Happy New Year - 59.12 crore
2. Kabali - 53.96 crore
3. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo - 53.24 crore
4. Sultan - 50.31 crore
5. Bahubali - 49.48 crore
6. Singham Returns - 43.63 crore
7. Dhoom 3 - 42.10 crore
8. Chennai Express - 41.87 crore
9. Khaidi No.150 - 41.75 crore
10. Dangal - 41.33 crore
11. Ek Tha Tiger - 40.94 crore
12. Sardaar Gabbar Singh - 37.10 crore
13. Janatha Garage - 36.48 crore
14. Bajrangi Bhaijaan - 36.42 crore
15. PK - 33.32 crore
2. Kabali - 53.96 crore
3. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo - 53.24 crore
4. Sultan - 50.31 crore
5. Bahubali - 49.48 crore
6. Singham Returns - 43.63 crore
7. Dhoom 3 - 42.10 crore
8. Chennai Express - 41.87 crore
9. Khaidi No.150 - 41.75 crore
10. Dangal - 41.33 crore
11. Ek Tha Tiger - 40.94 crore
12. Sardaar Gabbar Singh - 37.10 crore
13. Janatha Garage - 36.48 crore
14. Bajrangi Bhaijaan - 36.42 crore
15. PK - 33.32 crore
It has to be noted what Kabali and Bahubali have done is get the figures on a non holiday while most of the above Hindi films are holiday releases. Not that Kabali or Bahubali would have done much more if released on holiday as they are doing close to capacity on a non holiday.
Basically the occupancy of Kabali and Bahubali is higher than what the biggest Hindi films have done on a national holiday. Kabali just ran riot in South India just on the name of Rajnikant as hit or flop the superstar just gets bigger and bigger.
Shahrukh Khan film Happy New Year which started this 50 crore GBOC on opening day benchmark. This was followed by Salman Khan and then the biggest of them all Raknikant. This 50 crore figure is the one for any star who has any box office clout and so far only the Three Biggest Stars in India have managed it.
