Last year, Siddharth Anand’s action entertainer Pathaan marked superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback to the movies after more than four years and caused havoc at the box office. It minted a gross collection of Rs 1050.30 crores worldwide and emerged as an all-time blockbuster. Exactly a year later, Siddharth’s directorial outing Fighter starring Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoor is all set to release in theatres. At the outset, the film has everything going for it, right from a scintillating chemistry between the fresh lead pair to some never-seen-before stunts in Hindi cinema, which might just make it Bollywood’s first blockbuster of 2024.
Speaking to News18 Showsha recently, the filmmaker shared his expectations surrounding the box office performance of Fighter. “There’s no way I could’ve imagined that Pathaan would be a mammoth success, even in my wildest dreams… I don’t expect that this time around. I don’t want Fighter to be compared to anything. I want it to chart its own world because it’s its own film,” Siddharth Anand said.
Considering the high hopes pinned on Fighter, we spoke to a few trade experts, who shared their Fighter Day 1 collection. Producer and film business expert Girish Johar is placing his bets on ‘the collective star power’ of Siddharth and the cast, which he also believes is what the producers of the film ‘are expecting to encash’.
He says, “The trailer has been enjoyed by the masses. It’s an ensemble film with Hrithik, Deepika and Anil. Siddharth is one of the top filmmakers in the country today. The scale in which the film has been shot and the trailer are truly mesmerising. I hope the mass audience also echoes this thought. Keeping that in mind, I expect the first-day collections to be somewhere around Rs 28-30 crore. If the film is good, I think the long weekend can help trickle in some big numbers.”
Trade analyst Atul Mohan, on the other hand, expects Fighter to earn Rs 20-25 crore today. While he doesn’t want to set his expectations too high, he’s quite confident that even some mixed reviews won’t be able to deter its business.
“Bigger numbers will be clocked in on Republic Day – may be around Rs 30-35 crore – following which the film will see another big surge on Sunday. But this will only happen if the film is good and the audience appreciates it. However, even if it receives negative reviews, it will do well on January 26th considering it’s a holiday. Having said that, we can’t expect it to clock Rs 50-60 crore,” he states.
For trade guru Taran Adarsh, Fighter’s biggest strength lies in its theme of patriotism and the fact that it’s releasing on Republic Day. And that, according to him, will primarily draw maximum footballs. “In my opinion, it should do Rs 35+ crore on day one of its release considering it is pre-Republic Day. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. And on January 26, the numbers are going to be huge. It all depends on the word of mouth. If it’s positive, it can earn Rs 45 crore on day two,” he opines.
Up until January 23, Fighter sold 1,08,784 tickets across 8987 shows and had already clocked an advance booking worth Rs 3.68 crore. And as of January 24, its advance booking stands at a whopping Rs 7.63 crore. Sharing his thoughts on the same, Adarsh points out it cannot be a parameter to predict the final box office numbers of the film.
“If the content is good, a great advance booking or the lack of it shouldn’t really matter. The most important thing is strong content. There have been instances of so many films with great advance booking that failed at the box office because the word of mouth wasn’t so positive,” he avers.
Mohan has a rather strong opinion on the hype surrounding advance bookings in recent times and he states that this ‘marketing tool’ to attract more audiences ‘has fallen flat’. “These days, advance booking numbers are used to create anticipation among the audience and develop a channel of communication with them but I don’t think it concerns them. People don’t read or care about these things. Those who’ve made up their minds to not watch a film won’t watch it anyway. In fact, they don’t even care about day one figures of films anymore,” he says.
On a parting note, Johar adds that, unlike Pathaan, the music album of Fighter isn’t one of its strongest suits and he hopes that it doesn’t become a reason for the audience’s dwindling interest in the film. “The music of Fighter isn’t really in top form. With Pathaan, the songs became even more popular post the film release. I hope the same happens with Fighter. When you’ve Hrithik and Deepika, the chemistry has to be sizzling and theirs is a combination that everyone wants to watch. I wish Fighter becomes the second blockbuster of the year after HanuMan,” he remarks.
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