Kabaali recorded the highest first day nett collections of all time but in GROSS terms it was the second highest opening of all time in India. When regional films come into play they have to be compared in GROSS as this is the number collected at the box office which gets distorted with different rates of Entertainment Tax across India. A Tamil film is tax free in Tamil Nadu where most of its revenue comes from while Hindi films have a huge tax of 65% in UP. Also Entertainment Tax is lower generally in the South.
Still for Kabali to up there as the second highest opener ever in India is just phenomenal. There are only four films to have a 50 crore GROSS opening day with Kabali just behind Prem Ratan Dhan Payo which is the biggest opener ever in India, Below are the top ten opening day grossers in India. The list includes all films released in India and all figures are GROSS. Also all languages included for all films.
1. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo - 55.03 crore
2. Kabali - 53 crore apprx
3. Sultan - 51.15 crore
4. Happy New Year - 50.78 crore
5. Bahubali - 49.48 crore
6. Dhoom 3 - 45.67 crore
7. Singham Returns - 43.44 crore
8. Ek Tha Tiger - 41.29 crore
9. Chennai Express - 40.81 crore
10. Bajrangi Bhaijaan - 36.23 crore
It has to be noted what Kabali and Bahubali have done is get the figures on a non holiday while most of the above Hindi films (Dhoom 3 and Bajrangi Bhaijan excluded) are holiday releases. Not that Kabali or Bahubali would have done much more if released on holiday as they are doing close to capacity on a non holiday.
Basically the occupancy of Kabali and Bahubali is higher than what the biggest Hindi films have done on a national holiday. Kabali just ran riot in South India just on the name of Rajnikant as hit or flop the superstar just gets bigger and bigger.
There is another South Indian film which just missed the top ten and came in 11th place and that film is Sardaar Gabbar Singh. A Telugu film released earlier this year which has a GROSS opening day box office of 36.10 crore though did not fare well in the long run.
Although it went unnoticed at the time as GROSS figures were not compiled but is was a Shahrukh Khan film Happy New Year which started this 50 crore GBOC on opening day benchmark. This was followed by two films from Salman Khan and now the biggest of them all Raknikant is there also. This 50 crore figure is the one for any star who has any box office clout and so far only the three biggest stars in India have managed it.
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