For perhaps the first time ever in the recent history, two Hollywood movies clashed with each other and ended up scoring over Rs. 65 crores in their opening weekend. Yes, there have been huge tentpole films that have done such kind of business on their own in India as well. However, for two such movies to come and that too when they are non-event affairs, and then ending up having one of the best weekends that Indian box office has seen in entire 2023, is nothing short of remarkable.
Oppenheimer led from the front and almost ended up hitting a half century, what with Rs. 49.50 crores* in its kitty already. It could well have hit a Rs. 50 as well but then the film has seen a relatively controlled release with focus on quality of screens that have the best audio-visual experience, instead of quantity when the whole cinematic quotient would have been diluted. On Sunday too there was excellent response for the film and that’s what resulted in Rs. 18 crores* more been collected; a huge number.
On the other hand, Barbie had its weekend business similar to the third day of Oppenheimer as Rs. 18.50 crores* came in. This too is a very good number as the film is playing at less than 1000 screens in India and still the collections are good. When a Hindi film releases at such count of screens, the end result is not this much which shows that that the occupancy levels of Barbie are rather impressive. With Rs. 7.50 crores* coming on Sunday, the film has kept its upwards journey going and now it would be hoping that the fall on Monday is less than 50%.
*Estimates. Final numbers awaited
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
