Kartik Aaryan's 'Shehzada' Opening Day Box Office Projection

Mumbai, February 16 - After the blockbuster start of the year with Shah Rukh Khan's "Pathaan", all eyes are now on Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon's "Shehzada" which releases on February 17. Kartik is returning to the big screen after delivering the biggest hit of his career in the form of "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2".

"Shehzada", which is the remake of the Telugu movie "Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo", is directed by Rohit Dhawan whose last directorial was "Dishoom" (2016). "Shehzada" has been carrying a decent buzz, however, the advance booking which opened this week is really poor and doesn't give much hope as far as the opening of the film is concerned.



The action comedy film will have a wide release on over 3000 screens across the country. As of 1 PM on February 16, "Shehzada" has sold approx. 22K tickets, including approx. 12K tix at three national chains (PVR, INOX, Cinepolis) for the opening day. It is one of the lowest counts of advance tickets post the covid-19 pandemic for a well-known Bollywood actor.

Kartik's last movie "Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2" had clocked approx. 6.50 crores gross in advance sales for the opening day and the movie opened at 14.11 crores net which was the second biggest opening post-pandemic for a Bollywood title at that time.

"Shehzada", considering its pre-sales as of now, is looking like a 5-7 crores net starter. As has been the case in the last couple of years, the film will heavily depend on spot bookings and positive word of mouth. The opening, however, can see a boost due to the Mahashivrati holiday the next day (Feb. 18). But, despite all the aspects, "Shehzada" doesn't seem like scoring more than 8 crores unless it gets extremely positive WOM.

Though "Shezada" is a family-friendly film, it is not a front-loaded one, so the makers will be hoping it gets positive reception from critics and audiences. However, the road still is easy for it going forward as it will be up against Marvel Studios' "Ant-Man 3" which has much better pre-sales and releasing on the same day.

Stay tuned...