After going through a lean patch since the release of Baahubali 2 due to lackluster films like Saaho, Radhe Shyam and Adipurush, pan-India superstar Prabhas has finally delivered a punch at the box office with his latest outing, Salaar, which hit the screens on December 22nd. The Prashanth Neel directional is tearing apart numerous existing records in all territories with its stupendous run in the first weekend.
One territory where the film has been running riot since its release is North America. On Sunday morning, the film screamed past the $ 5 million mark after having a sensational run in the first two days including Thursday premieres.
The cumulative gross of first day in North America is $ 3,827,726. On Saturday, Salaar refused to show any signs of slowing down as it punched out another one million dollar haul( $ 1,032,662) to take the total gross close to $ 4.8 Million. With Sunday’s sales, the film has entered the elite $ 5 million club in style. This is a terrific run despite not getting premium format IMAX screens due to the release of Hollywood biggie ‘Aquaman The Lost Kingdom’
Prabhas is now the only South Indian actor with three films in the prestigious club in North America. His previous two films were Baahubali 1 and Baahubali 2. Rajinikanth has two films Jailer and 2.0. in the club.
Salaar will target the $ 10M club in its full run because the heady combination of Prabhas and Prashanth Neel proved to be the selling point despite having narrative shortcomings.
On the other hand, Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Dunki’ is struggling to catch up with Salaar. The Raj Kumar Hirani directional started on a decent note with $ 877K on its opening day. It then added $ 902K and $ 952K on Friday and Saturday respectively. By Sunday morning, the total gross surpassed the $ 3 Million mark.
Dunki is having an underwhelming run because of the below-par word of mouth and stiff competition from Salaar. Shah Rukh Khan’s previous films stood as the second and third highest-grossers of all time after Baahubali 2. But, Dunki is likely to end up way ahead of them.