Akshay Kumar's "Rustom" has had a wonderful box office collection and has become one of the highest grossing movies of 2016. However, the Salman Khan-starrer, "Sultan" has earned more than double of what "Rustom" has.
While the lifetime box office collection of "Sultan" is over Rs. 300 crore nett at the domestic market, lifetime earning of "Rustom" is expected to reach a maximum of Rs. 130 crore nett at Indian box office. Although both the films had enjoyed positive word of mouth, Salman's "Sultan" had an upper hand over "Rustom" at the single screens and that apparently made the difference.
Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, "Sultan" had witnessed massive opening at the box office and its run at the single screens apparently was a big factor in making it cross the Rs. 300 crore mark. On the other side, "Rustom" performed the best at multiplexes but had an average collection from the single screen theatres.
Trade experts believe that "Sultan" had a universal touch which has helped the movie become the third Bollywood movie to have collected Rs. 300 crore at the Indian box office. "With only class touch, you can reach only 130-150 cr, but to touch 300 you need universal touch," tweeted Prakash Jaju, who happens to be a fund manager in the film industry.
"When I called a particular single on 1st day of #Sultan or #BajrangiBhaijaan it was full & plexes 70-80% but during #Rustom SS was 50% [sic]," he said on the micro-blogging site. Although "Rustom" has become Akshay's third highest grossing movies of all time, it could not match the storm that "Sultan" had created at the box office. It is to be mentioned, "Sultan" was a solo release while "Rustom" had hit the screens along with "Mohenjo Daro."
Both "Sultan" and "Rustom" had introduced fresh onscreen pairing of Salman, Anushka Sharma and Akshay, and Ileana D'Cruz respectively. "Sultan" has made a lifetime collection of around Rs. 300.50 crore at Indian box office, while earnings of "Rustom" stood at around Rs. 123 crore by the end of its third weekend.
