Full house for 'Housefull'

New Delhi, May 3 (IANS) Akshay Kumar starrer comedy 'Housefull' has set the ticket windows buzzing again by grossing Rs.64 crore in its opening weekend worldwide.

Released Friday, the comic caper opened with more than 2000 screens worldwide and garnered a collection of Rs.48 crore gross in India and Rs.16 crore overseas in its first weekend.

'Housefull' being the first major release post 45 days of cricket frenzy, we were confident that it will open very well. With its excellent weekend performance, the biggest of the year so far, 'Housefull' has lived up to its name,' said Nandu Ahuja, Senior Vice President (distribution), Eros International Media Limited.

Distributed by Eros International Media Limited, 'Housefull' has been produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and directed by Sajid Khan. Made at a budge of Rs.45 crore, the multi-starrer also features Riteish Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone and Jiah Khan.

'Housefull' revolves around Akshay who plays the world's unluckiest guy and believes his luck will change when he finds true love and gets married.

'The weekend response was tremendous. Despite having 31 shows at a gap of half-an-hour, the average occupancy has been nothing less than 80-85 percent and the weekend was jam packed. It has a done of business of gross Rs.2.5 million in three days,' Amit Awasthi, manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas, told IANS.

Added Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas: 'The first weekend of the movie has been very fruitful with an average occupancy of nothing less than around 90 percent. Multiplexes will now heave a sigh of relief.'

A source from PVR said: 'Housefull' exploded like a bomb at the dull box office and has been amazing. People are liking the content and it has brought us close to 80 percent occupancy despite having more than 200 shows across all our propertied in Delhi and NCR.'