The much-anticipated Prabhas-starrer mythological epic Adipurush releases on the big screen today amid high anticipation from the film fraternity and general audience alike. The film looks at creating box office history courtesy of the film's religious backdrop and Prabhas' stardom all over the country. In a rather bleak year for Indian box office where only nine films combining all industries could cross the 100 crore mark all over the country, the most successful film Pathaan rewrote history with more than 1000 crores in its kitty and stood out from all the other candidates with high distinction, both domestic and overseas. This is the second Indian film this year that truly stands as an event film for every nook and cranny of the country which gives a major boost to the film's box office prospects. It has a fair shot at breaking many records set by the SRK-starring mammoth which are as follows
1. Highest pan-India opening day of 2023
Pathaan collected 57 crores on its opening day, combining the dubbed versions of the film. With Bollywood having a lesser audience in South India due to regional cinema dominance and a considerable amount of the population in the states not understanding Hindi well, many movies from the industry are unable to perform to their fullest potential but this is not the case with South Indian films targetting the entire country such as Bahubali, 2.0, RRR and KGF scoring outstanding opening day collections. Adipurush is looking at an opening day of 80-85 crores all over India as the support for the film will be there from all over the country. South India, especially the two Telugu states, will be a major booster as the film stars a big actor from the industry and is simultaneously shot in Telugu as well as dubbed in the other 3 languages.
2. Highest pan-India 3-day opening weekend of 2023
Pathaan, which has an extended 5-day opening day weekend, collected 161 crores in its 3-day weekend. This record will be easily surpassed by the Prabhas film due to the same factors boosting its opening day. It can easily breach the 200 crore mark in its opening weekend as the film will get family boost on Saturdays and Sundays in the Hindi belts along with the strong initial from the South due to Prabhas' box office pull. This will ensure that Adipurush will have the highest 3-day weekend for an Indian film domestically of the year.
3. Highest worldwide opening day for an Indian film of 2023
Pathaan collected 106 crores on its opening day all over the world which made it the first outright Hindi film to cross the coveted mark in a day itself and also made it the highest-collecting Indian film on its opening day for the year. As Adipurush is already tracking for an 80-85 crore opening day in India itself, it will have a huge chunk coming from the overseas market itself as the Telugu diaspora is in major market in countries like USA and Canada which are major foreign markets for Indian films. It is aiming for an opening day of 120-130 crores all over the world which will make it among one of the biggest opening days for an Indian film all over the world, only behind RRR, Bahubali 2, KGF 2 and Saaho, all of them being South Indian films and two of them starring Prabhas himself.
4. Highest single-day collection for any Indian movie in 2023
Pathaan amasssed a mind-numbing 70 crores all over the country on its second day which was a national holiday for Republic Day. Adipurush aims at obliterating this record on its opening day itself as the advance bookings have been fantastic all over India and opening day occupancy is excellent to bumper in many places and with this having a high screen count along with hiked ticket prices due to the 3D format, it will easily break the record for highest single-day record for any Indian film this year today itself.
5. Highest grossing Indian film of 2023 in the country
This is a tough task for the film to achieve as the record which is held by Pathaan clocks at a massive 543 crores but the film relied mostly on its original Hindi version to draw crowds and was a more front-loaded film due to the action genre which scores most of its audience in the opening weekend only. Even a highly appreciated Hollywood action film like John Wick 4 had a lion's share of its excellent 50 crore lifetime from the opening weekend only as family audience support is less for action films meanwhile Adipurush being a religious film which usually have more than stable legs will have more staying power. Examples for this from films targetting a certain state or region only can be the all-time blockbuster Sikhism-based Punjabi-Hindi biliungal Chaar Sahibzaade in 2014 which went on to collect more than 20 crores in Punjab state alone from a meagre 35 lakhs opening day, also holding the title for the highest-grossing Indian animated film of all time and the Marathi blockbuster Pawankhind last year which collected 37 crores from Maharashtra state alone with an opening day of only 1.25 crores. With Adipurush having a benefit of a strong initial and having family appeal along with catering to almost the entire country, the sky is the limit for this film which can very easily be the highest-grossing Indian film of the year.
Overall, Adipurush has a big shot at reviving cinemas with the timeless tale modernised for the audience and made in a way to target the entire country instead of just one state.The film can do wonders at the ticket counters and all of it is remaining to be seen in the coming days. Thse factors, even if the film is not appreciated, will ensure that the film can easily break the five aforementioned records.