Last Updated: August 09, 2023, 19:58 IST
Gadar 2 Rules Over OMG 2 At Box Office, Rajinikanth’s Jailer Overpowers Chiranjeevi’s Bhola Shankar Ticket Sales
Four big films are hitting the big screens – Gadar 2, OMG 2, Jailer, and Bhola Shankar, this coming weekend.
This coming weekend, moviegoers have a wide variety of films to choose from. Four big films are hitting the big screens – Gadar 2, OMG 2, Jailer, and Bhola Shankar. While the Hindi speaking markets feel Sunny Deol’s Gadar 2 will take the lead, Rajnikanth’s Jailer will rule the box office down south.
Reportedly, Gadar 2 has already broken records in advance ticket sales. The film has already sold over 1.3 Lakh tickets for its opening day. The number may rise up to 2 lakhs by Thursday’s end. It is also being reported that, 3,00,000 tickets have already been sold across the nation, with major cities such as Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru leading the charts, as reported by ticket aggregator BookMyShow.
Film critic and trade expert, Taran Adarsh has called Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel’s Gadar “a lottery for the distributors and the producers” and added that Gadar 2 is the only film this year after SRK’s Pathaan which has appealed to the ‘heartland’ of the country.
While speaking with Indian Express, he shared, “The advance booking is phenomenal and the first day should be over Rs 35 crore. The mass circuits are in overdrive. In the single screens, there will be capacity issues because they have only four shows in a day, unlike multiplexes where you can hold 18-20 shows. But single screens also have an advantage because they have larger auditoriums with a sitting capacity of 1000-1200. So, that compensates. This is one film after Pathaan that is going to rule the heartland.”
Helmed by Anil Sharma, the film is set against the backdrop of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, the trailer promises action, drama and the iconic screams by Tara Singh. The trailer also hints at a nod to the famous handpump scene. It is a sequel to Anil Sharma’s Gadar, which was a blockbuster hit in 2001.
On the other hand, film producer and trade analyst Girish Johar added that Gadar 2 will do good business in Tier 2 and 3 cities as he noted, “Craze is phenomenal in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.” Revealing that the film has already secured over 4,000 screens, he pegged the film’s opening day collection at around Rs 25 crore, which can grow depending on word of mouth.
Meanwhile, Akshay Kumar’s Oh My God 2 (OMG 2) are adopting a more cautious approach, considering its ‘A’ certification and targeting. Girish Johar added, “They are not trying to overcommit. They are not going overboard as they know what the content is, and they know they cannot target the family audience because they have got an ‘A’ certificate. They are trying to walk the tightrope. Still, the awareness levels are quite positive for the film as well.” OMG sold 45,000 tickets on BookMyShow and Johar is predicting an opening of Rs 8-10 crore for the film.
However, down South, the audience is divided between Rajinikanth’s Jailer and Chiranjeevi’s Bhola Shankar. Film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi shared, “In Tamil Nadu and the Tamil-speaking belt across the country, Jailer is looking like an absolute storm. The kind of advance bookings that you see around the film is unprecedented. It is possibly on its way of becoming one of the highest-opening Tamil films of all time. A huge Huge buzz there,” he said.
BookMyShow has already sold 900,000 tickets of Rajinikanth’s Jailer.
