Encoding Number Game From 2000 To 2018: 18 Years & 24 Record Openers At The Box Office!

[Ulquiorra]

The business dimensions of the film industry have changed massively in the last 18 years, as now, the collections of the film on the opening day and weekend have gained a lot of prominence as compared to the long run in the cinema halls and at the box office.

The first record opener of this millennium was Refugee, which was the launch vehicle of two star-kids, Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor. The film, directed by JP Dutta raked in Rs 1.56 crore on its first day, thereby shattering all previous opening day records.

The was eventually broken by Mission Kashmir in 2001, which collected Rs 1.65 crore on its opening day despite a clash with Shah Rukh Khan – Amitabh Bachchan starrer, Mohabbatien. The hype surrounding Mission Kashmir was so high, thanks to Hrithik Roshan’s popularity, that without a clash, it would have become the first Hindi film to collect over Rs 2.00 crore on its opening day. Well so on and so forth, almost every year came a film that broke the opening day record of the previous film. The industry has shown a growth from Rs 1.56 crore opening day in 2000 to Rs 41 crore opening day in 2017, however there is still a lot of scope to improve and if all goes as expected, the industry might get to see the first Rs 50 crore opener this year.

Encoding Number Game From 2000 To 2018: 18 Years & 24 Record Openers At The Box Office!

While there are 24 record openers in the list, the films that deserve a special mention are Krrish, which broke the previous record by a margin of 52%, Bodyguard which surpassed the previous record holder by a margin of 48% and Ek Tha Tiger which shattered all records by a margin of 50%.

While films like Refugee, Ajnabee, Indian, Dus, Bunty Aur Babli and Race are the surprise entrants in the list, there are quite a lot of obvious films as well like Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Singh Is King, Ghajini, Ek Tha Tiger to name a few. Since 2000, Aamir Khan has delivered 5 record openers, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan have been a part of 4 record openers each where as Hrithik Roshan (4 if we include K3G) has 3 record openers and Abhishek Bachchan (5 if we include Dhoom 3 and Happy New Year) have 3 record openers, Akshay Kumar has delivered 2 record openers and finally Saif Ali Khan and Sunny Deol have 1 record opener each.

Here’s a look at the top openers at the Box-Office since 2000:

 

 

 

1. Refugee: Rs 1.56 crore

2. Mission Kashmir: Rs 1.65 crore

3. Ajnabee: Rs 1.66 crore

4. Indian: Rs 1.80 crore

5. Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham: Rs 2.38 crore

6. Main Hoon Na: Rs 2.73 crore

7. Bunty Aur Babli: Rs 2.91 crore

8. Dus: Rs 2.92 crore

9. Mangal Pandey: Rs 3.25 crore

10. Fanaa: Rs 3.95 crore

11. Krrish: Rs 6.00 crore

12. Race: Rs 6.32 crore

13. Singh is Kinng: Rs 7.24 crore

14. Ghajini: Rs 9.07 crore

15. 3 Idiots: Rs 12.50 crore

16. Dabangg: Rs 14.50 crore

17. Bodyguard: Rs 21.50 crore

18. Agneepath: Rs 22.00 crore

19. Ek Tha Tiger: Rs 32.92 crore

20. Chennai Express: Rs 33.12 crore

21. Dhoom 3: Rs 33.53 crore

22. Happy New Year: Rs 39.00 crore**

23. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo: Rs 40.35 crore

24. Baahubali 2: Rs 41.00 Crore