Ranbir Kapoor's much-awaited movie Sanju, set for a grand release, will most likely halt the dream run of Salman Khan's Race 3, which has made a good collection at the box office in two weeks.
Released on 15 June, Race 3 opened to fantastic response and made a superb collection in its first weekend, but its business dropped considerably on the weekdays. The movie has seen a further dip in its second week. It collected around Rs 163 crore net at the domestic box office in 13 days.
Before its release, trade experts had predicted that Race 3 would easily surpass Rs 200 crore mark at the Indian box office in its second week, but it failed to achieve it. However, the movie is facing a big roadblock in Sanju, which would pose a threat to Race 3 collection in its third week.
Sanju is a biopic on actor Sanjay Dutt, whose life has several highs and lows. Its content featured in its promos has soared viewers' curiosity sky high. Ranbir Kapoor has played Sanjay and his looks and manners have also doubled the expectations of the movie. It is the movie by Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who have churned out several blockbusters together.
These factors have generated huge hype for Sanju and distributors are releasing it in over 5400 screens around the world to cater to the massive demand and cash in on the hysteria surrounding it. The film would collect Rs 30 crore at the Indian box office on the first day and beat Race 3 to become the biggest opener of 2018.
Race 3 suffered a huge setback due to the mixed word of mouth. Though there was no new release to compete with it in its second week, the Salman Khan starrer was withdrawn from 40 percent of cinema halls that it was holding in the first week. On top of it, the movie witnessed a very low number of footfalls. These aspects resulted in 85 percent dip in its collection, when compared to its first week business.
Race 3 has collected less than Rs 25 crore net at the Indian box office in its second week. Now, Sanju would force it out from the cinema halls, wherever it is doing poor collections. It would also become the first choice for most of the filmgoers. Hence the Remo D'Souza-directed movie may struggle to collect even Rs 5 crore net at the domestic box office in its third week.