Finally, it is that time of the year when audiences are expected to arrive in hordes to watch a film. Holiday season has begun, Christmas is round the corner and the slot is pretty much reserved for Aamir Khan and his latest film. From the recall value perspective this is an important time of the year since 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3 and PK, all record creators by Aamir Khan and his team, have arrived in this season. Each of these films has been an All Time Blockbuster and the winning streak is pretty much expected to continue with Dangal as well.
Audiences have been starved of good entertainment for quite a while now. The last universally appreciated film was M.S. Dhoni - The Untold Story though after a fantastic start, that film too had to settle down for Rs. 133.5 crore. Before that it was Sultan which was in true sense an All Time Blockbuster with phenomenal business across single screens and multiplexes at A, B and C centres. Now this is the real target for Dangal to surpass as the least that an Aamir Khan film is expected to do is business in the vicinity of 300 crore.
While this is from the business standpoint, when it comes to the entertainment quotient then audiences deserve that while industry needs it too. 2016 has been quite disappointing from the entertainment standpoint since at least a dozen high profile films have disappointed both critically as well as commercially. Especially the fate of films in the last three months has made one wonder if quite a few filmmakers have lost touch with the ground reality of what audiences want. On the other hand for the industry in general too, one needs at least three to four biggies to arrive in succession to reinstate confidence for all.
All of this means that Dangal needs to open big and so far, there is a promise too that it would indeed. The promo has been loved, Aamir Khan in his elements, the subject is attached to the roots and entertainment appears to be there in good quantum.
The film would be arriving on a record number of screens (our estimate it that it would open on around 5000 screens) which means there is a capacity of around Rs. 50 crore waiting to be exploited. That said, the film is not a holiday release per se and is arriving on a regular Friday. Even on a conservative scale, the film should open at least with Rs. 25 crore on Day One. That would be a good start indeed for the film as this is a family film which grows over the weekend and once there is a start then the makers can well expect Saturday and Sunday to grow massively.
