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Box Office: Raid 2 registers strong advance bookings for 1st Tuesday despite opting out of 'Blockbuster Tuesday' discount offer
Raid 2, directed by Raj Kumar Gupta and starring Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh and Vaani Kapoor is a certified hit at the box office thanks to its rubust Monday hold.
Raid 2, directed by Raj Kumar Gupta and starring Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh and Vaani Kapoor packed a winning extended weekend of Rs 71 crore net in India. It opened to strong numbers on Labour Day holiday, sustained well on Friday and grew terrifically on Saturday and Sunday. The biggest test for the film was going to be the Monday test where holding well was very important. Raid 2 has not just held well but it has held very well on Monday with collections of around Rs 8-8.50 crore.
The collections of Raid 2 on Monday are barely 30-35 percent down from first Friday and this means that the movie has found acceptance by the majority of the audience. If the acceptance was not there, the drop on Monday would have been around 60 percent from Friday. The cume of the movie after 5 days is just under Rs 80 crore. A Rs 100 crore week 1 from here is a cake walk and lifetime projections are now over Rs 150 crore net. This would make Raid 2 the year's 2nd highest Bollywood grosser, only behind Chhaava, which is not expected to leave its top position any time soon.
Raid 2's advance bookings for first Tuesday are strong and a Rs 7 crore plus net day surely seems like happening. Raid 2 becomes the first movie to opt out of the 'Blockbuster Tuesday' scheme offered by PVRInox where tickets on Tuesday are made available to audiences at a subsidised rate of Rs 99 to 149 for the standard versions. Even the premium versions are available at lower than normal rates. This is a strategic decision which has paid off for the Raid 2 makers. This step ensures that they won't exhaust their audiences and rather earn more out of each moviegoer. Raid 2 on Tuesday would have perhaps collected Rs 7 crore even with the offer but that would come at a cost of losing crores due to exhaustion of the prospective audiences.
It is clear that Raid 2 is the only accepted new release playing in theatres for Hindi viewers and audiences will have to shell out money for the accepted content that they are willing to watch. Perhaps on its 2nd Tuesday, Raid 2 makers may be ok to make the film available at subsidised rates. By then, majority of the film's business will have happened so the impact of showing the film at low rates won't be much.
Ajay Devgn has been one of the most consistent box office performers for Bollywood post-pandemic. With Drishyam 2, Shaitaan and now Raid 2, the actor is proving his bankability. Singham Again may have earned more than the above-mentioned titles but it is an underperformer as it failed to match the expectations everyone had from the movie. The upcoming Ajay Devgn movies this year are De De Pyaar De 2 and Son Of Sardaar 2. With sequels to accepted movies being the call of the day, we can say that both these movies have the potential to emerge theatrical hits as well.
Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates on Raid 2.
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