KARACHI: Eidul Fitr is the most lucrative season for cinema in Pakistan, as producers, distributors and exhibitors all try to recover from the Ramazan hiatus. They do that by complementing the best possible exhibition option with the most feasible distribution network in terms of the cinema circuit and number of screens. And when you have a Salman Khan action film slated for an Eid release then the cinema industry chooses it without giving it a second thought and it mostly works in their favour.
Even this time around Salman Khan proved to be a goldmine for the box office as Kick created history with its all time high first day collection of Rs20.08 million on the first day of Eid. Kick not only breaks the Rs11.4 million opening day business of Waar but also eclipses Dhoom 3‘s all time highest opening day collection of Rs19m.
To date, Dhoom 3 holds the record of the highest grossing film in Pakistan with a whopping Rs240 million as its total business. Having said that, Dhoom 3‘s huge earnings can be attributed to a few odds that worked in its favour and the most significant among them was the fact that there was a ban on Indian films for about two months before Dhoom 3 was released.
At the time of the release, people who were craving quality films raided both the multiplexes and single screens in Pakistan, making the film achieve this milestone. Apart from that, no significant Bollywood film followed the Dhoom 3 release for a couple of weeks which gave it a smooth running on the box office.
Kick has the advantage of being released on Eid but also faces possible competition from Akshay Kumar’s Its Entertainment and Ajay Devgn’s much anticipated Singham Returns, scheduled to release 10 and 16 days from now respectively. Both these films may reduce Kick’s chances of achieving anything extraordinary in the long run but Salman Khan has always proved the odds wrong.
Let’s see whether Kick manages to be the all time highest grossing film in Pakistan or not.
Kick sets new records in Bambino and Ghalib cinema
All previous opening records were broken at the historic Bambino cinema where Kick generated an average collection of Rs180,000 per show on the first day of Eid with the first show nearing up to as much as Rs200,000.
“Kick has broken all previous records of opening collections at our cinema but the exact grand figure will be compiled by this evening” Adeel Siddiqui, the owner of Bambino cinema told The Express Tribune.
According to sources, even Ghalib cinema in Korangi received the highest ever opening with an average of Rs70,000 per show which is quite significant for a cinema in such a vicinity. The owners of Ghalib are yet to corroborate these figures.