Darling 4K Day 1 Box Office: Prabhas Starrer Sells Over 2 Lakh Tickets To Become 2nd Highest Telugu Re-Release Ever; Steady Start In North America

Prabhas starrer Darling has registered a massive start at the box office with its 4K re-release. The romantic entertainer, originally released on April 23, 2010, collected Rs. 7.59 crore gross worldwide on its first day. With these numbers, it has become the second-highest opening day for a Telugu re-release, following only the record set by Baahubali: The Beginning. The film managed to surpass the opening day collections of recent major re-releases like Gabbar Singh 4K and Khaleja 4K, solidifying Prabhas' position as the biggest superstar of the Telugu film industry today.

The momentum for this re-run was evident right from the moment advance bookings opened on April 17, where roughly 39,500 tickets were sold instantly. The film generated a historic buzz by raking in approximately ₹3 crore in advance bookings gross alone before the first show even commenced. All-India advance sales for Day 1 comfortably crossed the ₹2.8 crore mark, with more than 2 lakh tickets sold across a massive footprint of over 1,300 shows. In the capital city of Hyderabad, the craze reached a fever pitch as over 25,000 tickets were sold within a matter of hours.

A closer look at the digital ticket sales reveals the sheer magnitude of the Prabhas brand. On BookMyShow alone, Darling sold a massive 154,000 tickets in pre-sales. To put this into perspective, this figure is significantly higher than the re-release performance of the actor's recent global blockbuster Salaar, which saw around 102,000 tickets sold. With this performance, Darling officially entered the Top 5 all-time for Telugu re-release ticket sales on the platform, moving ahead of classic titles like Athadu and Businessman.

The scale of the release was unprecedented for a film returning to the big screen. Darling 4K played across 1,616 shows in 185 cities, maintaining a very healthy overall occupancy of 47 percent on its opening day. Fans across the nation turned theatres into concert halls, with over 180 housefull shows recorded nationwide. The combination of nostalgia, the evergreen chemistry between Prabhas and Kajal Aggarwal, and the pristine 4K upgrade has turned this re-release into a full-blown box office celebration.

In the overseas markets, the Darling 4K re-release has managed to put up decent numbers on its opening day. According to the data reported by Venky Box Office, the film registered a Day 1 gross of $32,093, which is approximately Rs. 30.1 lakhs. The North American market contributed the lion's share with $20,962 coming from 82 locations. The United Kingdom recorded a gross of £7,708, while Australia added around A$1,000 to the total tally.

The performance in the USA was steady, with special shows recording a final advance sale of $17,841 across 135 shows with 2,234 tickets sold. Per Venky Box Office, while the footfalls were strong, the overall gross was slightly limited due to the discount Tuesday pricing. In the all-time North American re-release charts, Darling 4K has taken the 13th spot. It surpassed the opening figures of other notable re-releases like Shiva 4K, Pokiri 4K, and Billa 4K, though it finished just behind the numbers of SVSC 4K and JVAS 4K.

Here are the top 5 highest-grossing Telugu re-releases on their opening day in the North American market:

• Baahubali: The Beginning - $452,739 from 400 Locations (Rs. 3.80 Crore)
• Indra - $65,375 from 64 Locations (Rs. 54.91 Lakhs)
• Gabbar Singh - $60,216 from 117 Locations (Rs. 50.58 Lakhs)
• Khaleja - $58,288 from 107 Locations (Rs. 48.96 Lakhs)
• Athadu - $57,290 from 124 Locations (Rs. 48.12 Lakhs)