Shah Rukh Khan starrer "Happy New Year", which was released for Diwali last month, may have become one of biggest hits at the box office in 2014, but the Hindi film failed to live up to expectations.
King Khan has a history of breaking his own record at the box office to create a new one. Film after film, Shah Rukh Khan's performance at collection centres has seen a rise in the past few years. Trade analysts were hoping that the actor would do the same with his latest film, "Happy New Year", and shatter the record of his last film "Chennai Express" in both domestic and international circuits. Unfortunately, the Hindi movie, after getting a fantastic start, failed to retain the momentum.
"Happy New Year" got the biggest opening of the year and it made ₹44.5 crore on the first day. In the next two days, Shah Rukh Khan's film continued to do good business and ended the first weekend with ₹108.86 crore. The spectacular opening made people pin high hopes on the film's performance at collection centres.
However, the film floundered in the following days and managed to earn only ₹157.57 crore by the end of its first week. The performance slowed down week after week and the film struggled to cross ₹200-crore mark in India.
Shah Rukh Khan registered his name in the elite 100-crore club with "Ra.One". His next movie "Don 2" performed well in international circuits and his next two films "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" and "Chennai Express" took him to new heights with the film bettering his earlier performances either at domestic box office or international circuits.
People were anticipating Shah Rukh Khan to continue this trend and beat "Chennai Express" records. But "Happy New Year" seems to be stuck after touching ₹200 crore, and crossing ₹210 crore seems to be a tough ask for this film now.
"Happy New Year" also failed to beat the life-time gross of "Chennai Express".
Find below the list of total business made by Shah Rukh Khan's last six films. It clearly shows that King Khan failed to beat his own standards this time. Maybe the bar was too high.
"Chennai Express": Total Gross ₹422 crore
"Happy New Year": Total Gross ₹383 crore
"Jab Tak Hain Jaan": Total Gross ₹241 crore
"Ra.One": ₹240 crore
"Don 2": ₹206 crore
"My Name is Khan": ₹200 crore
