Runway 34 vs Heropanti 2 at box office: Tiger Shroff starrer will get a bigger opening, says trade experts

Amid the KGF Chapter 2 wave at the Indian box office, Bollywood films Runway 34 and Heropanti 2 are releasing in cinema halls this Friday. While Heropanti 2 is a masala entertainer with typical action and song and dance sequences, Runway 34 looks more story-driven. And, this gives Heropanti 2 an edge over Runway 34, suggests film trade experts.
“Between the two, Heropanti 2 will get a slightly bigger opening for the simple reason that it caters to a mass audience, while Runway 34 feels slightly urban, which will be appealing to the audience at multiplexes. However, the presence of superstars like Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan will give it a wider reach,” film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi told . He said Heropanti 2 will earn somewhere around Rs 8-9 crore and Runway might start at Rs 5 crore.

Runway 34, helmed and produced Ajay Devgn, revolves around Captain Vikrant Khanna (Devgn), a flying prodigy, whose flight takes a mysterious course after take-off from an international destination. Amitabh Bachchan stars as lawyer Narayan Vedant who grills Devgn’s character in court when he is accused of putting the lives of his passengers in danger.

Akshaye Rathi opined that Runway 34 is a film which is “not designed to get a massive opening”. He said, “It’s a film which will get traction with good word of mouth and grow and sustain over a period of time, whereas Heropanti 2 is designed to be a mass opener.”
Though Rathi called it a “clash of the titans” at the box office this weekend, film producer and trade analyst Girish Johar said that Runway 34 and Heropanti 2 won’t affect each other’s box office collection. However, they will have a hard time at the ticket counters because of Yash’s KGF 2. “Though both the films are releasing, it is not a clash since they are completely different films. Instead, they will have a strong contender in KGF 2 since despite being a Kannada film, the audience in the Hindi belt is also thronging theatres to watch it,” Johar said.

Rathi said that the third weekend of KGF 2 will be made fruitful that section of the audience which didn’t turn up at theatres earlier due to Ramzaan. “A huge section of the masses, Muslims, have not come to the cinemas yet because Ramzaan was going on. With Eid, I expect a huge chunk of them to come to the cinemas and give KGF 2 the third solid weekend,” he said.
Besides Runway 34, Heropanti 2 and KGF Chapter 2, cinephiles also have Acharya, starring Ram Charan and Chiranjeevi in the lead roles. Rathi believes this week, the audience “will be spoilt some phenomenal choices.”
Meanwhile, KGF 2 has amassed over Rs 900 crore worldwide, and if this weekend works in favour of the Prashanth Neel directorial, it will soon enter the Rs 1000 crore club. Currently, the film is the fourth-highest earner after Aamir Khan’s Dangal (Rs 2024 crore), SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Conclusion (Rs 1810 crore) and RRR (over Rs 1100 crore).

But, what is the biggest learning that filmmakers should take from the humongous success of KGF 2? Akshaye Rathi explained, “The simple fact that it is a mass film with some true blue cinematic storytelling style, shows what the audience wants to come to the cinemas for. Just telling a story is not enough. You have to tell it in a cinematic way which is compelling enough for the audience to buy tickets and watch it along with 100 other movie-goers. KGF did that to the T. It cast a wide net and catered to the audience in urban centres, rural centres, single screens and multiplexes in Tier 1, 2 and 3.”
Rathi further suggested that filmmakers now need to think of the audience beyond big cities. “We need to stop thinking of just Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and start thinking about India. Only that will help us in repeating the success of KGF 2 over and over again,” he said.

The trend of South films making it big in the Hindi belt is a well chalked out strategy, feels Girish Johar. He said, “It was a well-thought strategy. They (filmmakers in the South) are slowly coming into the greener pastures of the Hindi belt after conquering the local belt. It is a concentrated effort.”
Now, with new releases, it remains to be seen if KGF 2 wave will overwhelm the ticket counters this weekend as well, or will the new releases dethrone the Yash-starrer from its position.