Fans had reserved a unique Valentine’s day gift for their superstar, Shah Rukh Khan, as they stormed the theatres again to watch Pathaan. The film faced a slight drop in the collections on its third Monday, but after Tuesday, it was back on track with a 35-40% increase in collections. According to the industry tracker Sacnilk, the film earned Rs 5.65 crores on Tuesday, which happens to be Valentine’s day, pushing its total net domestic collection to Rs 480 crores. Now, all eyes are on the Pathaan box office collection day; the third-week total of the film is over Rs 38 crores; still, two days are left for this week to end. Nevertheless, it is a remarkable performance and is competing with none other than S S Rajamouli’s Bahubali 2: The Conclusion, which gained Rs 50 crores in the third week. The following two weeks are crucial for Pathaan as it will determine whether it will surpass the Hindi dubbed version of Bahubali 2 in box office collections. Till now, Bahubali 2 rules the box office with a total collection of Rs 510.99 crores.
Before Pathaan, Amir Khan’s Dangal was the top-grossing Bollywood film in the third week, with a collection of Rs 46. 35 crores. Now, it seems that Pathaan box office collection day will break all the records this time. This weekend, two competitors of Pathaan, Kartik Aaryan’s Shehzada and the MCU film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, are going to hit the theatres. We cannot forget that when Bollywood was facing severe criticism from all parts of the world, it was Kartik Aaryan who brought the audience back to the theatres with his film Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. If Aaryan magic works again, it will be difficult for Pathaan to reach the Rs 500 crore benchmark.
Till Monday, the net Pathaan box office collection day ranges up to Rs 493.25 crores. YRF has declared that the film has earned a worldwide collection of Rs 950 crores, with Rs 360 crores coming alone from international markets. On Wednesday, it was reported that the film’s worldwide collection has crossed over Rs 960 crores.
In his recent interviews, the filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri who had earlier criticised Pathaan during the ‘Besharam rang ‘controversy, praised Shah Rukh Khan for returning Bollywood to its long-lost glory by leading Pathaan to a grand success. He said the film worked mainly because of Shah Rukh Khan’s charisma and fan followers. The way he marketed the film is indeed commendable. He believed the film to be his own and was ready to take responsibility which is rare today.