Shah Rukh Khan's 'Dunki' Opening Day Box Office Expectations

Mumbai, December 20 - The maiden collaboration between the two giant forces of Bollywood cinema, superstar Shah Rukh Khan and director Rajkumar Hirani is about to light up the big screen, as the countdown to the social comedy-drama film Dunki has begun.

Set against the backdrop of illegal immigration, Dunki is SRK's third film of the year after the two mass entertainers, Pathaan and Jawan. Scheduled to release on December 21st worldwide, the movie has been certified 'U/A' with an approved runtime of 2 hours and 41 minutes by CBFC.



Dunki is completely different from SRK's last two films which were action entertainers. According to the industry buzz, Dunki will be released on around 4000 screens on its opening day, and then it will depend on the audience's word of mouth going forward as it will have to share screens with Prabhas-fronted Salaar which is releasing on December 22nd.

The booking for Dunki is heading at a good pace considering the genre which is not front-loaded and the film being a mid-week release. Though Raju Hirani's films have never been about monstrous openings, the pre-sales are still good driven by the stardom of SRK and the goodwill of Hirani.

As of 4 PM on December 20, Dunki sold over 400K tickets worth over 11.50 crores gross overall, including 175+K in the three national chains (PVR, INOX, and Cinepolis) for the Thursday opening day. The sales are nowhere near the previous films of SRK but good enough for the genre.



The pre-sales of Dunki are expected to be finished with 15+ crores for the opening day which will be close to Sunny Deol's Gadar 2. G2, which was a hugely anticipated film and had a frontloaded value, opened at 40+ crores in a clash with OMG 2. Here, Dunki is not expected to beat these numbers as the booking trend indicates an opening of 32-35 crores could be on the card which will be a very good start for a mid-week release.

As said, Raju Hirani's films have always been about longevity and Dunki could be another film in his blockbuster list, given the positive word-of-mouth and the long holiday period. Raju Hirani hasn't put a foot wrong in his glorious 20-year career and Dunki is expected to follow the suit.

Stay tuned...