Telugu star Allu Arjun's much-awaited film Pushpa 2: The Rule, a sequel to the previous blockbuster film Pushpa: The Rise, has also ruled the Indian box office on its first day. According to Sacnik, the movie has earned Rs 175.1 crore nett on its opening day, the highest-ever for any Indian movie. It has surpassed the record held by S Rajamouli's RRR, which earned Rs 133 crore on its opening day.
The major collections of this movie came from its Telugu and Hindi versions, which helped it to earn Rs 95.1 crore and Rs 67 crore, respectively.
Pushpa 2 took the box office by storm even before its release with a record advance booking. The movie crossed Rs 100 crore gross in day 1 advance booking worldwide. This milestone has made Pusha 2 the sixth Indian movie to achieve this feat. The film sold tickets worth Rs 73 crore gross in India on day 1 and overseas market gross crossed Rs 35 crore. Including blocked seats, the gross collection of the film stands at Rs 125 crore.
The production budget of Pushpa 2 is estimated to be between Rs 400 and 500 crore. The face of the Pushpa franchise, Allu Arjun, reportedly charged Rs 300 crore for his role which established him as one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema's history. Reportedly, Pushpa 2 has earned Rs 1,000 crore already through non-theatrical revenues including OTT rights, satellite rights, music rights.
Earlier this week, the Andhra Pradesh government approved a ticket price hike for Pushpa 2. Expressing his gratitude towards the government, Allu called it a progressive decision for the Telugu film industry.
According to Sacnilk, the Pusha 2 has received one of the biggest releases with around 40,000 screens across India. It is expected that the movie will earn around Rs 250 crore at the box office worldwide on day 1, achieving a new milestone for Indian cinema.
While critic reviews for Pushpa 2 are still awaited, the release of the film itself created fanfare, with many even taking out massive rallies honoring the actor. Reports of fans dying in stampedes have also come up as people are rushing to the theatres.
Under the direction of Sukumar, Allu Arjun will play the titular role of Pushpa along side Rashmika Mandanna as Srivalli and Fahadh Faasil as Bhanwar Singh.
The first part of the franchise, Pushpa: The Rise, which was released in 2021 collected around Rs 400 crore gross in India. This success laid the ground-work for massive success of Pushpa 2.
Pan India Tactic
Indian film industry is one of the biggest industries in the world in terms of number of films produced and tickets sold. In 2023, it has registered the third-highest box office collection worldwide. The pan-India approach of new-age movies has breached the language and region-based blockade, making it easier for them to perform both in and outside the border.
Pushpa 2 is the sixth Indian movie to gross over Rs 100 crore in advance booking. This feat was achieved by Baahubali 2 in the pre-pandemic era but when theatres suffered heavily during the pandemic it was not sure whether the movies would perform well or not. Since then public preference has also shifted to OTT platforms.
However, the confidence was boosted when RRR, KGF Chapter 2, Leo, and Kalki 2898 AD also crossed this milestone. All the films were produced with a pan-India approach, dubbed in multiple languages and well-marketed internationally too. Films are Kalki and RRR roped in actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, Prabhas, N. T. Rama Rao Jr, Ram Charan and Alia Bhatt under the roof, further building the regional gap.
According to Industry Reports by Yes Securities, the Hindi version of Pushpa 2 has already sold 1,075,655 tickets in advance bookings at PVR Inox, second only to its Telugu version.
