Dear Zindagi Review and BO thread - DT Note P 60 - Page 60

This friday Alia Bhatt and SHAH RUKH KHAN starrer Dear Zindagi released on screens all over India.

The Film did shockingly good business on the first day, collecting a solid 8.75cr in just 1200 screens in india. And looks like even the Demonetisation effect falied to affect the film. The film didn't see any downfall in its business on the 2nd day too, as growth of 2.50cr from first day was witnessed, On Saturday it did 11.25cr with good word of mouth for the movie. Sunday was even better for this film as it collected 12.50cr making a total of 32.50cr in its weekend.

While Dear Zindagi is rocking till now in India, the film is also making good money from overseas, where it has released in just 600 screens. It did a good $ 4 Million i.e 27.45cr in the course of the weekend.

Well weekdays collections will be more important to decide the fate of this film whether it will have long run on box office or it will just go down. As of now Dear Zindagi is getting almost all positive reviews from audience and critics,

Dear Zindagi need just 60-70cr to get Hit tag in Bollywood, we wish them all the best for their good business.

SRK's extended cameo has made #DearZindagi overseas weekend higher than bigger films like #Housefull3 #Rustom #MSDhoni #MohenjoDaro

Highest 1st Weekend of 2016 in Overseas. 1) #Sultan 2) #AeDilHaiMushkil 3) #Fan 4) #DearZindagi 5) #Housefull3

Target audience of Dear Zindagi has accepted the film in its first weekend. The makers were very clear about the footfalls that were expected at select multiplexes and this is where the film had maximum penetration. Released on a controlled count of screens (1200), the strategy worked as the film managed to not just open well but also show good growth over the weekend. As a result, 32.5 crore* came in the first three days which is quite good considering the genre and treatment of the film.

As a matter of fact this Gauri Shinde film hasn't even seen all around glowing reviews coming its way. Yes, the reviews have been largely positive but still not the kind where everything around it seems to be positive. Even the word of mouth isn't spectacular or extraordinary, though the fact that audience isn't panning it either which has resulted in the footfalls which have been consistent ever since the film hit the screens.

The kind of start that the film has enjoyed gives it a very good platform to consolidate from this point on. In a couple of days itself, Dear Zindagi would go past the lifetime collections of Gauri Shinde's directorial outing English Vinglish [40 crore] which pretty much tells the tale. In fact it would also go past the lifetime total of Gauri's husband R. Balki's Ki & Ka [51 crore], a film aiming at the same target audience, within the second weekend itself, hence making it a pretty situation at the home-front of both the filmmakers.

What is to be seen though is how far ahead would the film go from this point on. While Udta Punjab [60 crore], another film starring Alia Bhatt, is all set to be crossed comfortably in the lifetime run, it would be an interesting race with Pink, which was again the tale of females with a strong male protagonist [Amitabh Bachchan] acting as a pivotal element.

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources

*Estimates. Final numbers awaited

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

Box Office: Dear Zindagi is amongst Top Weekend Openers of 2016, collects 12.5 cr. on Day 3