By garnering an opening day gross of 5.2 cr (approx $1.15 mn), Chiranjeevi's Stalin broke all the existing records amongst South Indian cinema in terms of openings. With this, Stalin also makes a place for itself amongst the top three Indian films, for the highest opening day gross. The movie released worldwide in true blockbuster style, with 400 prints in over 570 cinemas. The release hungama of the movie made national headlines with news channels CNN-IBN, NDTV and Headlines Today covering it.
As per reports, the movie collected a mind-boggling share of 1.5 crores in the Ceeded area on the first day where it released in 105 movie halls. It amassed a share of 33 lakhs on the first day in West Godavari, and 23 lakhs in Nellore. The day one share in East Godavari and Guntur is 40 lakhs and 45 lakhs respectively. Surprisingly, Nizam which is a bigger territory than Ceeded, collected a lesser share though the movie released with 135 theatres in the area. This can be attributed to the fact that the concept of ‘flat rates’ where ticket prices are steeply hiked on the first day do not exist in Nizam.
After gathering reports from all over, the producers of the film confirmed this figure to NonstopCinema, making us the first amongst the media to break this. This number, which even Bollywood films envy is going to hit the air waves across the country tomorrow as national news channels are expected to carry it. As it started off with a hit-talk, trade analysts expect the movie to collect a share of 12-13 crores in the first week, which means a pure gross of over 16-17 crores. In Utthar Andhra, the first week share is expected to be 1.25 to 1.4 crore, a number which many hit movies collect in their full-run. Vizag city itself is expected to rake in 40-45 lakh share in the first week. In Hyderabad, all the screen in Prasad multiplex were reserved for the movie. 15,000 people watched the movie in the multiplex on the first day.Telugu films are going through a transitional stage. The ‘100 days’ and ‘silver jubilee’ which were the benchmark to asses a movie’s successes are no more relevant. How much the movie is able to gather at box-office is what it all boils down to. Stalin is the first step towards that. 2006 has been one of Indian cinema’s best years in recent times as two of its major industries – Bollywood and telugu cinema are prospering and have churned out huge hits.
Source: www.nonstopcinema.com
