Baahubali 2 leads race at box office; Half Girlfriend, Hindi Medium get average opening

The Hindi version of Baahubali 2 has continued to lead the race at the domestic box office on its fourth Friday, while Bollywood releases -Half Girlfriend, Hindi Medium opened to average response.

The Hindi version of Baahubali 2 did rocking collection at the domestic box office for three weeks. Trade experts predicted that the new releases Half Girlfriend and Hindi Medium would vacate the three-week-old movie in its fourth week. They would also affect its collection by becoming the first choice for the Hindi audience this week.

But the Hindi version of Baahubali 2 has managed to have strong hold in maximum number of theatres that it had in its third week. The reason is that many Hindi audiences prefer to watch it more than two times. A viewer named Piyush Mishra‏ (@EnggJourno) tweeted: "I have already watched #Baahubali2 twice. This week will go for #HindiMedium & maybe 3rd time for Baahubali 2 (yes it's that good)."

The Prabhas and Rana Daggubati-starrer has retained 1275 screens domestic market in its fourth week, while new films Half Girlfriend and Hindi Medium released in 2500 and 1126 screens, respectively, today. The Hindi of Baahubali 2 has got decent advance booking for its fourth Friday and it witnessed 100 percent occupancy in several screens in the morning and matinee shows.

Half Girlfriend starring Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor opened to lukewarm response with its occupancy ranging between 15-20% in the morning shows. The movie, which got positive response from the audience, showed some improvement in the later shows. With word of mouth, the film is expected to show big leap in the afternoon and evening shows.

On other hand, the response to Hindi Medium is poor compared to Half Girlfriend. The Irrfan Khan and Saba Qamar registered an average of 5 to 10 percent occupancy in the morning show and the footfalls increased slightly in the second show. This movie also enjoys a strong word of mouth, which is expected to boost its collection in the later shows.

Early trends show that the Hindi version of Baahubali 2 is expected to collect nearly Rs 8 crore at the domestic box office on its fourth Friday (22^nd day). On other hand, Half Girlfriend and Hindi Medium are likely to collect Rs 5 crore and Rs 2 crore, respectively in the domestic market on their opening day. The SS Rajamouli-directed movie is set to top the domestic business in the fourth weekend too.