With shows at 5 a.m. in Kolkata and 6 a.m. in Jaipur with tickets flying off the shelves, Shah Rukh Khan’s newest movie Jawan is on track to surpass the opening day statistics of his own movie Pathaan. Insiders estimate that day one profits will be between 65 and 70 crore. Will the screening be impacted, read here.
The movie opens in Delhi ahead of the G20 Summit, which will take place on September 9–10 and will be attended by various leaders of state, including US Vice President Joe Biden. A tiny portion of the NDMC region will be subject to limitations, even though the city will be open over the weekend. According to Bijli, he is not concerned that G20 limitations would hurt the theatre industry in central Delhi. Four PVR theaters—PVR Plaza, Rivoli, Odeon, and ECX Chanakyapuri—would have to close during the summit.
“They are single screen theatres with a total capacity of about 2,000 seats so that really wouldn’t have much of an impact because the loss for that will be compensated by the fact that Delhi has a four-day weekend,” he mentioned.
“People are saying that this will be an opening day of ₹65 to 70 crore, which is bigger than Pathaan. The opening day figure for ‘Pathaan’ was ₹55 crore. So hopefully it will be bigger than Pathaan,” PVR-INOX Ltd Executive Director Sanjeev Kumar Bijli mentioned as quoted by PTI.
“Out of the 10 lakh capacity on opening day, we’ve sold about 25 per cent of the tickets, which is like 2.5 lakh tickets sold for Thursday across PVR INOX (screens). It is a very big number and early estimates suggest that it can be bigger than Pathaan,” Bijli told to PTI.
Mumbai-origin trade expert Komal Nahta said to PTI, “The situation is crazy across single-screen theatres and multiplexes both. It is difficult to predict the business. It will at least do ₹70 crore on day one (in India)”.
According to Bijli, the South would account for about 30-35 percent of the movie’s revenue, which is more than the sums earned by Pathaan.
Given that the bulk of the actors and crew are from south India, “Jawan” has generated a lot of attention there as well, according to Ramesh Bala, a trade analyst based in Chennai.
“The advance booking is looking good all over India, certainly so in the South as well. There are early morning shows in the south. It is a big release here for all the states combined because the cast and crew are from the South.
“So the buzz is more. Looking at the advance booking response for the film, I think on day one, the film should do ₹20 to 25 crore from the South market, and overall, it should do ₹70 to 75 crore across India. If the movie is reasonably good, then the lifetime business of the movie will be ₹800 to ₹1,000 crore,” Bala averred.
Miraj Cinema, an Indian movie theatre chain with more than 182 screens, reported selling 28,000 tickets so far this year.
“Due to overwhelming public demand, we’ve broken new ground by adding a 5 am show for a Hindi film in Kolkata, a first in our cinema’s history. Jaipur will experience the earliest screening at 6.05 am in Hindi, setting a record for the city,” Amit Sharma, MD of Miraj Entertainment Ltd stated.
“After almost 30 years in Rajasthan, we are having 6 am shows for Jawan. In the past, this happened with Amitabh Bachchan’s Hum,” Bansal, director, Jaipur’s three-screen multiplex Entertainment Paradise said as quoted by PTI.
“Almost 80 to 90 per cent booking is done so far; by Thursday it will be houseful. We are happy with the golden run of movies in theatres, especially in single-screen theatres. I think because of Pathaan and Gadar 2, the business in single screen has revived. The industry has bounced back in a big way. With Jawan things are looking positive,” Manoj Desai, executive director of Gaiety, Galaxy and Maratha Mandir Cinema as quoted by PTI.
The Tamil and Telugu versions of the movie are receiving passionate support as screens become available for advance reservations in different locations, while the Hindi version is obviously grabbing the lead, according to Ashish Saksena, COO – Cinemas, BookMyShow.
“What is interesting to note is that the Hindi language version of the film has seen maximum interest from markets in South and East India such as Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai amongst others,” Ashish further added.
