Dangal Scores Big On Day One

Dangal has done excellent business on day one collecting around 29-30 crore nett as per early estimates. The opening day is in the second highest non holiday opening ever. Dangal is also the second highest opening day collections of the year and they are also the second highest for an Aamir Khan starrer going past PK (25.45 crore) but behind Dhoom 3 (32.48 crore). The huge numbers have come despite some places underperforning. The best performance has come in East Punjab and Delhi NCR, the former has been helped by the Haryana feel which meant the film even scored in the smaller centres of East Punjab. The figures are simply insane in these areas with huge evening numbers. The under performance is in Eastern India (West Bengal, Bihar etc) and more importantly Gujarat / Saurashtra which has held Mumbai circuit back a little as compared to North.

There were reports a couple of weeks back that the film has tax exemption in UP but that has not happened as yet and the film is playing on normal rates in the state. The exemption cold have helped if it was there as barring a few multiplexes of the circuit the collections could be better. The opening day and the open run is enough to ensure a big success but with a festive event film the question is always how big. This real big question is that will Dangal emerge the biggest hit of the year or remain the second biggest (this is almost certain due to the open run). This will be decided how it performs in its weaker areas over the weekend as this is where the spare capacity is and potential of big growth.