Samrat Prithviraj Box Office Preview: Akshay Kumar starrer runtime, screen count & opening day prediction

Akshay Kumar returns to the big screen with the release of Yash Raj Production, Samrat Prithviraj, which is directed by Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi. The historical was recently certified U/A by the CBFC with an approved runtime of 2 hours and 13 minutes (133 minutes). According to industry estimates, the Hindi version of the film is going to see a wide release on about 3500 screens plus screens with the Tamil and Telugu versions bagging around 100 to 150 odd screens taking the total count in the vicinity of 3700.

The advances for this Akshay Kumar starrer opened five days prior to the release, but there hasn’t been much movement on the advance booking front. As of Thursday morning, Samrat Prithviraj sold around 17,500 tickets in the three national chains – PVR, Inox and Cinepolis – which is much lower when compared to the recent releases like RRR and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, which had clocked sales upside of 45K at the same point of time. In the film's defence, Akshay Kumar films on non-holiday have never been high on advance booking and it’s the on counter tickets that result in a respectable opening.

However, Samrat Prithviraj is a much bigger film and hence, one expected certain movement in the advance bookings, especially on Wednesday and Thursday, but that hasn’t really happened. This makes the film heavily dependent on the Friday spot bookings. The audience's word of mouth will also play a big role to carry forward the business of Samrat Prithviraj, as after a relatively slow start, it would need big jumps on Saturday and Sunday followed by a strong hold on Monday to have things rolling in its favour through the theatrical run.

The advances so far suggest a single-digit start, but we have seen it with Akshay Kumar films in the past when spot bookings have been good, taking the film in the double-digit range. We expect the film to start anywhere in the range of Rs 10 to 12 crore, expecting a good response in the spot bookings. Anything higher would be a lottery putting the film in a better position to grow over the weekend, whereas anything lower would spell danger. Of course, anything under Rs 15 crore will be considered a low start with the sort of budget, and subject, but historical films have the potential of having long legs and if that happens, the film could make up for the shortfall of opening day in the longer run.

It's all wait and watch, as the eyes would be on the content and audience reactions from tomorrow.

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