The Prabhas-starrer, 'Salaar', which had initially stirred concern among fans due to a significant decline post-Christmas, has taken an unexpected turn with a substantial surge in advance bookings on its sixth day.
Having already achieved milestones in pre-release advance bookings, the action-packed thriller surpassed the pre-booking sales of Thalapathy Vijay’s 'Leo,' setting the record for the highest pre-booking sale of 2023. The film continued to outpace Shah Rukh Khan’s 'Dunki,' which premiered on December 21, 2023. However, a worrying dip of nearly 61% was observed in the recent past, prompting concerns about the film's trajectory.
In a surprising turn of events, Salaar witnessed a sudden rise in advance booking collections on day 6, accumulating a remarkable 7.85 crores gross (excluding blocked seats). This surge amounted to an impressive 46.8% increase from the previous day's sales of 5.35 crores gross. With over 3.78 lakhs tickets already sold, the film defied mid-week expectations and showed a significant boost.
However, controversy arose when morning shows of the Hindi dubbed version, which had been sold out at several locations, were unexpectedly canceled. Despite this, the collection from these shows has been included in the day's overall earnings, prompting speculation about potential technical glitches or other underlying issues affecting the data.
'Salaar,' directed by Prashanth Neel, stands on a substantial budget estimated between 350-400 crores. Having accumulated a total earning of 279 crores across all languages in the initial five days, the film faces the challenge of maintaining its momentum to counterbalance its production costs. The absence of significant competition at the box office until the release of 'Fighter' on January 25, 2024, and its superior performance compared to 'Dunki' leaves a significant window of opportunity for 'Salaar' to capitalize on.
The film’s future trajectory remains under scrutiny, with its ability to sustain this surge and regain momentum during the weekends likely to determine its overall verdict in the box office.
