'Rustom' 1st weekend box office collection: Akshay Kumar starrer inches closer to Rs 100 crore gross mark

Akshay Kumar's "Rustom" has opened to superb response and decent growth at the world box office over the weekend. The movie is now inching closer to the Rs 100 crore-mark in the global market.

"Rustom" had clashed with "Mohenjo Daro," another most-hyped film starring superstar Hrithik Roshan, and was forced to share the number of screens. Despite the setbacks, the Akshay and Ileana D'Cruz starrer beat "Mohenjo Daro" at the Indian box office by a big margin on the opening day.

The Tinu Suresh Desai-directed movie has received positive response from audience and critics, while "Mohenjo Daro" got mixed talk. The word of mouth took its business upwards on Saturday and Sunday. Compared to the opening day, "Rustom" showed 16.50 and 40+ per cent growth on the next two days respectively.

"Rustom" has collected approximately Rs. 50.42 crore nett at the Indian box office in the first weekend. Its three-day total domestic gross stands approximately at Rs. 65 crore. The day-wise break up of its collection is Rs. 14.11 on Friday, Rs 16.43 crore on Saturday and Rs 19.88 crore on Sunday. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted: "#Rustom Fri 14.11 cr, Sat 16.43 cr, Sun 19.88 cr. Total: ₹ 50.42 cr. India biz. TERRIFIC!"

The pre-release hype of the film had made everyone feel that it might turn out to be the highest grossing film for Akshay, beating the record of "Housefull 3," which collected Rs. 53.31 crore in the domestic market in its first weekend. However, the film failed to do so. Had the Akshay starrer got a solo release, the film could have made a better business at the domestic market.

"Rustom" was released in over 550 screens in the key international markets -- U.S., U.K., U.A.E., Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The crime-mystery film received superb response everywhere and collected Rs. 8.50 crore gross on the opening day.

The movie continued to show decent growth and is estimated to have collected Rs 21.50 crore gross on Saturday and Sunday. "Rustom" has collected approximately Rs 30 crore gross at the international box office in the first weekend and trade experts describe its three-day overseas as superb.

"Rustom" is estimated to have collected a total of Rs 95 crore gross at worldwide box office in its opening weekend. The movie is expected to do well in the domestic market on Monday's Independence Day holiday and will surely surpass Rs. 100 crore gross business in the global market on its fourth day.