'Rustom' 1st day box office collection: Akshay Kumar-starrer becomes 4th highest opener of 2016

Akshay Kumar's crime-mystery film "Rustom" has become the fourth highest box office opener of the year after earning over Rs 14 crore. It is also Akshay's second highest opener this year after Housefull 3.

"Rustom" has also received a superb opening at the Australia, New Zealand and UAE box office, while Hrithik Roshan's "Mohenjo Daro" made disastrous collections on the first day.

Trade experts had earlier predicted that "Rustom" will have a massive box office opening and continue a successful run for a long time. Akshay's two other films this year, Airlift and Dishoom, were also box office successes.

Directed by Tinu Suresh Desai, "Rustom," which is inspired by real-life murder case involving naval officer KM Nanavati, had generated a lot of curiosity among the movie-goers.

However, the film clashed with "Mohenjo Daro," another most-hyped film starring superstar Hrithik Roshan, and was forced to share the number of screens across different cities. The clash of the films divided the audience, which in a way affected the first day collections. Had the Akshay starrer got a solo release, the film would have made a better business at the domestic market.

Despite the setbacks, "Rustom" is leading by a big margin. Taran Adarsh ‏tweeted: "#Rustom starts with a bang... Leads by a big margin... Emerges 4th highest opener of 2016... Fri ₹ 14.11 cr. India biz."

After seeing its early trends, most of the trade analysts predicted that the film would surpass the first day collection of Akshay's previous film "Housefull 3." However, "Rustom" failed to cross "Housefull 3" collection by a small margin.

"Rustom" was expected to be one the biggest Bollywood openers of 2016 in the domestic market. Its collection was to be on par with that of "Sultan," "Fan" and "Housefull 3." However, the film has only managed to be in the list of top five Bollywood openers of the year. Here is the list. The numbers may vary from the actual figures, as they are based on various reports.