'Lion' (4 Days) 1st Weekend Collection at Box Office: Balakrishna Fails to Live up to Expectations

Nandamuri Balakrishna's latest outing "Lion" has made a good collection at the worldwide box office at the end of its first weekend. However, its four-day business is way below the expected mark.

"Lion" is one of the most hyped and highly-promoted Telugu movies of 2015. Trade analysts had predicted that the movie would get record breaking opening at the global box office and break all the records of "Legend", which is to be the biggest opener and highest grosser for Balakrishna.

As predicted, "Lion", which released in around 100 cinema halls across the globe on 14 May, opened to an earth-shattering response on Thursday and collected ₹5.5 crore at the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (AP/T) box office on the first day. But the film failed to break the opening day record of "Legend".

The Balakrishna starrer got mixed reviews and the word-of-mouth took a huge toll on its business over the weekend. The movie witnessed a huge drop of over 50 percent on Friday and it went down further on the following days. The makers are yet to reveal its collection. As per early estimates, "Lion" has collected ₹12 crore nett at the (AP/T) box office in the four-day-extended first weekend.

Trade analyst Trinath opines that "Lion", which had created waves in the media before its release, has failed to 'roar' at the box office. "In four days since its release on Thursday, 'Lion' managed to earn a meagre share of Rs. 11.2 crore at the box office in India," Trinath said, according to IANS.

Trinath feels that the meagre collection is due to weak word-of-mouth. "You would expect it to make even more from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana alone but since the film opened to very unsatisfactory word-of-mouth, the numbers dropped from the second day. A big test lies for the movie at the ticket window this week," the trade analyst added.

"Lion" has received good response in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, North India, the US, and Canada. The movie has raked in approximately ₹6 crore nett from its screening in these areas. It has collected around ₹18 crore at the worldwide box office in its four-day-extended first weekend.