By Editor
Shah Rukh Khan, who has had a stellar year at the box office with hits like “Pathaan” and “Jawan,” released his third film of the year, “Dunki,” with much excitement. The first show of the Rajkumar Hirani-directed film in Mumbai’s iconic Gaiety Galaxy theatre at 5:55 am generated quite a buzz online. However, the excitement didn’t fully translate into box office numbers.
According to early estimates reported by industry tracker Sacnilk, “Dunki” is expected to earn around Rs 30 crore on its opening day. This marks Shah Rukh Khan’s lowest opening of the year. The morning shows saw an occupancy rate of 26.45%, which dropped to 21.77% during the afternoon. The overall occupancy for the Hindi version of the film averaged around 24.11%. It’s worth noting that “Dunki” released on a regular working weekday, so it might see an uptick over the upcoming Christmas weekend.
However, “Dunki” faces another challenge in the form of Prashanth Neel’s “Salaar,” which hits theaters the day after. “Salaar” is already making waves, having sold 16,83,871 tickets for a business of Rs 35.23 crore even before its release. This strong pre-release performance by “Salaar” could pose a significant challenge to “Dunki” at the box office.
In summary, while Shah Rukh Khan’s “Dunki” had an exciting start with early morning screenings, it faced lower-than-expected footfall on its opening day. Its performance will be closely watched over the Christmas weekend, but it also faces stiff competition from the upcoming release of “Salaar.”
