The late Puneeth Rajkumar’s swansong, James, which premiered on March 17 to coincide with his birth anniversary, has been smashing box office records. The film is doing incredibly well in the theatres and is still going strong. On its first Sunday, it continued its golden run, staying the top pick of Karnataka moviegoers.
Aside from Karnataka, James is experiencing an upsurge in the collection in both foreign and domestic circuits. The film has earned more than a hundred crores.
Karnataka Box Office’s Twitter handle tweeted, “James Crossed 100Cr+ Gross in 4 Days.”
Manobala rushed to Twitter to write, “James ZOOMS past ₹100 crores gross mark. Also, achieved the record of highest single day footfalls for any movie in 88 years history of Kannada Film Industry.”
#James ZOOMS past ₹100 cr gross mark. Also, achieved the record of highest single day footfalls for any movie in 88 years history of Kannada Film Industry.#PuneethRajkumar
— Manobala Vijayabalan (@ManobalaV) March 21, 2022
The film, which premiered a day before Holi, had a rousing reaction at the domestic box office, grossing approximately Rs 38 (net) in three days. Despite the opening of Bachchhan Paandey a day later, the film earned about Rs 11 crore on its maiden Sunday at the box office, as per early estimates.
Not only is the film going well in India, but also performing well overseas. Ramesh Bala, the film critic and trade expert, reported that James is doing well on the global circuit. The film has risen to the second spot in the UAE, which is unusual for a Kannada film.
In this film, Puneeth Rajkumar portrays James. Shiva Rajkumar, his brother, has given the voice-over. In addition to Puneeth Rajkumar, the film stars Priya Anand, Srikanth, R Sarathkumar, Tilak Shekar, Mukesh Rishi, Aditya Menon, and Rangayana Raghu.
This film was released in 400 cinemas across Karnataka. Alongside Kannada, this film has been distributed on 4000 screens with dubbed versions in Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, and Tamil.
Rajkumar passed away in October last year, and his death came as a huge blow to the industry and his admirers. James, directed by Chethan Kumar, is Puneeth’s final film as the major lead.
