═» SULTAN «═ Salman Khan - Anushka - Ali Abbas Zafar - Excellent !Crosses 300Cr NETT !!!

Salman Khan once paid a visit to these kids during Jai Ho screening (Catch News)

To say that Salman Khan's Sultan is one of the most anticipated films of the year would be an understatement. Trade analysts and Bollywoodaficionados alike expect the sport drama to break Bollywood Box Office records.

×
But as tickets fly off the shelves for theAli Abbas Zafar-directorial, a group of Salman Khan fans in Mumbai have something special in store.

Fans of the actor in Mumbai have organised a special screening of Sultanfor underprivileged children.

 

334 tickets

 

Around 1100+ screens (overseas) #Sultan @yrf

 

If advance booking is any indication, Salman Khan’s Sultan is getting ready to storm the box office when it releases on Eid, on Wednesday, July 6. Advance booking for the movie opened across India yesterday, and so far, multiplexes have sold 30-40 per cent tickets, for day one. Multiplex heads and programmers across India believe that Sultan will be this year’s biggest film so far and that it will break records for day one. Here’s what they have to say about advance booking for Sultan:

Devang Sampat, Business Head/Strategic Initiatives, Cinepolis

Salman Khan is back with his Eid offering and advance booking is taking place at a fast clip. In fact, I cannot remember the last film that drew such a response with advance booking. At Cinepolis, we have already sold 30,000 tickets and our occupancy is around 1 lakh. This means, 20 per cent of tickets have already been sold for day one.

Amar Laykar, PVR

Sultan is going to be this year’s biggest film. We opened advance booking yesterday and by evening, we had sold 41,000 tickets for day one. Now, that number has gone up to 65000-70,000 tickets. The film is going to take a brilliant opening.

Ashok Kavthamkar, Carnival Cinemas

Given Salman Khan’s track record, expectations from Sultan are very high and it will no doubt receive a phenomenal response from the audience. Around 30 per cent tickets have been sold, across all our multiplex chains for Wednesday’s shows. In Indore, we have one cinema hall and we sold 970 tickets there, whereas in Kolkata, we have sold 410 tickets. We expect huge collections from this film.

Prem Lakhani, Rajhans

The buzz around Sultan is very strong. Our tickets are priced range at Rs 400 and Rs 130. In B-Tier cities, we have sold 600-800 tickets and in A-Tier cities, 1,500-1,600. The matinee morning show is already 60 per cent booked. This film will definitely break many records.

Sunil Gholap, Movie Time

Across all Movie Time properties, from Sunday to Monday afternoon, we have had sold around 2,000 tickets. In spite of heavy rains, advance booking for Sultan is very strong. We have 12 properties and each one is 50-per cent booked.

Sailesh Joshi, City Pride

Our property in Kothrud has sold around 90 per cent tickets for Wednesday’s shows, with the first few shows already house full. In the rest of our properties, around half the tickets are sold out by now and the buzz around the film is very strong. And, the sale of tickets is brisk not only online but also at the ticket counters, despite heavy rains.

Gaurav Ruparel, City Pulse

We have received a 70-per cent response to advance booking for Sultan. The audience is eagerly awaiting this film, which is obvious from the advance booking numbers. We have never seen 70-per cent sale of tickets from day one.

Gandharv Sharma, Red Rocks

Salman Khan has a huge fan following and this is the biggest film of the year, so far. The buzz is tremendous, and we didn’t know just how much till we opened the advance booking. Everyone is humming the song Baby ko… It also looks like a strong, content-oriented film.

Ashutosh Aggrawal, Star World

Sultan will be the biggest opener of the year, so far, which has been borne out by the advance booking figures. Despite heavy rains, advance booking has been great and we have already sold 60 per cent tickets for Wednesday. For the rest of the week, we have sold 30 per cent tickets. Eid belongs to Salman Khan!

Avinash Kumar Singh, APR

We opened advance booking yesterday and have already sold 60 per cent tickets for Wednesday. For the rest of the week, we’ve sold 15 per cent tickets. And all this despite very heavy rains.

 

Let’s talk about the phenomenon that usually grips Bollywood when a big film is around for release. No other film dares to come alongside it. No other major film releases before or after it either. The ones that actually arrive are usually the kind that do not manage to get space in any of the other weeks. Even if they get space, chances are that audience would pick up a bigger film or the one with a better promo. The only films which have any chance whatsoever are the holdover releases and they too need to be really good, in order to keep running before the biggie strikes.



Chances are, none of it really works for audiences, exhibitors, distributors or producers associated with various films. As a result, theaters are empty all over – be it single screens or multiplexes – and all eyes are on the biggie waiting to strike. Yes, the biggie benefits a lot from the additional hype that gets generated in the meanwhile while everything and everyone in the supply chain before that suffers.



This has happened again for Bollywood Box Office over the weekend gone by as well. No big film releases. Smaller films like Shorgul [1.5 crore*] and Kerry On Kutton didn’t have the kind of promo or anticipation to see major footfalls. Holdover release Raman Raghav 2.0 was a goner from Day One itself. Udta Punjab was better, though minimal [1.75 crore*] to just drag towards the 59.25 crore* mark while Hollywood release The Legend of Tarzan collected on low count [7 crore*] as well.



Result? A weekend of just around 10 crore* which is less than 10% of the capacity of over 150 crore that 5000 odd screens have to offer.