Despite facing competition from "Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3", Akshay Kumar starrer "Airlift" opened to good numbers at the domestic box office. The film has shattered the opening day record of Akshay's last Republic Day release "Baby".
"Airlift", starring Akshay and Nimrat Kaur, received rave reviews and the strong word of mouth helped the opening day occupancy of the film. The film minted Rs 12.35 crore net income on its opening day at the domestic box office, breaking Rs 9.3 crore record of "Baby" .
The opening day box office collection of "Airlift" is also the highest of 2016. Until now, only three big films have released including "Wazir" and "Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3", and out of these, only "Airlift" managed to earn more than Rs 12 crore. "Wazir" earned Rs 5.61 crore and "Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3" earned Rs 8.15 crore.
"#Airlift has an IMPRESSIVE Day 1. Fri ₹ 12.35 cr. India biz. Exceptional word of mouth. Biz should multiply over the weekend," trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted.
Raja Menon's directorial film opened to approximately 35 to 40 percent occupancy on Friday, which resulted in an impressive Rs 12.35 crore earnings. "Airlift" received good response from metro cities, including Mumbai, Delhi and East Punjab.
The film now needs to show a decent growth on Saturday, which is likely to happen, to record a good opening weekend box office collection. "Airlift" might take its opening weekend total to Rs 40 crore, if the collection increases on Saturday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, the film has already broken a record at the UAE-GCC box office, where it was released in about 70 screens on Thursday. "Airlift" has become Akshay's highest opener at the UAE-GCC box office.
The Akshay-Nimrat starrer accumulated AED 900,000 (Rs 1.66 crore) on the day of its release. "#Airlift takes UAE and GCC by storm. Collects approx AED 900,000 [₹ 1.66 cr] on Thu. Highest opening day grosser of Akshay Kumar there," Adarsh tweeted.
Starring Akshay as Ranjit Katiyal, "Airlift" is about the biggest evacuation of Indians -- around 1.7 lakh of them -- based in Kuwait during the Iraq-Kuwait Gulf war. Apart from Akshay and Nimrat, the film also features Feryna Wazheir, Purab Kohli, Lena, Kumud Mishra and Prakash Belawadi.
