Who won box-office battle? Stree 2 inches towards Rs 100 crore, Akshay Kumar's Khel Khel Mein opens lower than John Abraham's Vedaa [Details]

This week, the weekend came early as August 15 saw three releases battling out at the box office. To everyone's surprise, movie-goers loved all three films. The clash this week is between Akshay Kumar whose last 10 films have tanked at the box office, his film Khel Khel Mein has been lauded by fans and critics, as the actor is back with the comedy genre, and this time he did leave the masses n splits. The light-hearted entertainer is indeed a good watch if you have nothing planned this weekend.

Apart from Akshay's epic comic timing, the actor is being lauded for his cameo in Stree 2. However, it's Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, and Abhishek Banerjee who stole the show in the sequel of Stree. The supernatural universe is an altogether new genre that cinema buffs love.

And now, the third film that cinephiles are hoping to watch are: Vedaa, starring John Abraham, Sharvari Wagh and Tamannaah Bhatia, despite facing tough competition from the horror-comedy Stree 2 and Akshay Kumar's Khel Khel Mein. Vedaa has managed to attract audiences and the strong word of mouth has played a key role.

Let's look at the box-office report card which film fared well, and which films are still struggling to make their mark.

Vedaa

As per Sacnilk, Vedaa earned Rs 6.52 crore in the domestic market on its first day, with Rs 6.5 crore coming from the Hindi version and Rs 50 lakh each from the Tamil and Telugu versions.

Vedaa saw an overall Hindi occupancy rate of 35.63 per cent on Thursday, with Mumbai recording 37 per cent occupancy across 415 shows, and Delhi-NCR seeing 41.50 per cent occupancy across 475 shows.

This has turned out to be John's biggest opening in six years.

John's last film that shattered all BO records was during the 2018 Independence Day blockbuster, Satyamev Jayate.

The film had made Rs 19 crore on day one. However, John's biggest opening remains Siddharth Anand's spy thriller Pathaan (2023) which starred Shah Rukh Khan in the lead.

Stree 2

Stree 2 collected an impressive Rs 54 crore on day one. The horror comedy broke the long-standing record of SRK's Chennai Express, which had earned Rs 6.75 crore nett in 2013.

According to industry tracker Sacnilk, the film has amassed a total of Rs 54.35 crore over both days, with Rs 46 crore earned on Thursday and Rs 8.35 crore from the Wednesday previews

Stree 2 has surpassed BO records of Akshay Kumar's Khel Khel Mein and John's Vedaa.

Khel Khel Mein

Despite the positive review, Akshay Kumar's film opened below expectations and opened lower than Vedaa. The film has made a total of 5.23 crores net.

However, the long weekend has just begun, and the films have a lot of scope to perform till Raksha Bandhan which is on Monday.