Tubelight box office prediction: Salman Khan film’s business to suffer due to this reason
Salman Khan’s Tubelight is heading towards release and people are asking if it would break records — especially that set up by Baahubali 2 and Aamir Khan’s Dangal post its massive success in China. Also, audience is agog to know if it would be Salman’s best film so far. The film, which is a human story depicting how people get affected as two countries go to war, is an emotional journey of a character called Laxman Bisht Singh played by Salman Khan. After Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Salman comes back as a naive character in this Kabir Khan directorial. But would he succeed to make us emotional yet again? Now, that is a question that June 23 will answer when the film releases in theatres.
But before that, let us talk about the expected trade, the success rate of the film and why Salman’s films have their release at Eid every year. In conversation with indianexpress.com, film distributor Akshaye Rathi said while the film will do well, it will hover around Rs 25 crore mark on day one. For perspective, Salman’s last release Sultan earned Rs 36.54 crore on day one despite releasing a day before Eid while Baahubali 2 earned Rs 121 crore on the day of its release counting all languages.
“The one thing we really need to focus on is the fact that the film is releasing during Ramadan and not Eid. This year, Eid has fallen on Monday. Over the years, it has been seen that the footfall during Ramadan is not much. So, the film will earn anywhere around Rs 25-Rs 30 crore. But the original boost for the film will happen on Eid with around Rs 35 to Rs 40 crore of earning on a single day. So, while the film might just earn Rs 90 crore in the entire weekend, Monday aka Eid business will change the entire box office scenario for the film. It is very similar to what had happened during Salman’s film, Wanted. Even that film released during Ramadan but during Eid, it earned so much that there was no looking back.”
Tubelight makers are looking forward to China release, which according to Akshay would be a good idea since the Chinese audience can relate to it. “China market is huge in comparison to India’s market. So, naturally any filmmaker would want to explore that region. The benefit for Tubelight is that it has a Chinese actor in Zhu Zhu and is based on India- China war. It would have a easy-to-relate factor. Kabir Khan is a director who makes a universal film without hurting anyone’s sentiments. So, if China release happens, it would be in favor of Tubelight. However, it does have a tough competition in Dangal, which has already done really well and Baahubali 2, which is looking for a release as well.”
However, he denies any possibility of Tubelight competing with Baahubali, “To break Baahubali 2 record, it would take a special story. What happened during Baahubali 2 release is an exception. But yes, Tubelight can cross the mark of any Salman film so far. It can also surpass Dangal collection in India.”
Concluding the conversation, Akshay said that the reason why Eid has been a perfect occasion for Salman’s release is the fact that he enjoys an exclusive popularity among his Muslim fans. He says existence of Shah Rukh Khan in a cameo role might pump-up the ticket sales but it does not mean that Salman is targeting the fans of SRK as even the Raees actor has a vast variety of fan following. Akshay reveals that in India, Tubelight will have a massive release with approx 5000 screens across the nation. However, going by the word-of-mouth, the number of shows and theatres might increase.
