Despite being in its third week of release, director Nag Ashwin’s Prabhas and Deepika Padukone-starrer, Kalki 2898 AD, continues to attract large audiences at the box office. On Monday, which marked its 19th day of release, Kalki fared better than director Shankar’s Kamal Haasan-starrer Indian 2, which has only been running for four days. On Monday, Kalki also entered the list of the all-time highest-earning Indian films domestically.
On July 15, its third Monday in theatres, Kalki recorded a domestic nett collection of Rs 4.3 crore, according to industry tracker Sacnilk. On the same day, Indian 2, which was on its fourth day in theatres, earned only Rs 3.15 crore, marking a dip of over 79 per cent compared to its Sunday earnings. Although Kalki saw a 73 per cent decline from Sunday, when it earned Rs 16.45 crore domestically, it still showed a strong performance, suggesting it will likely maintain a steady momentum throughout the week.
With its Monday’s earnings, Kalki’s total domestic nett collection has reached Rs 584.45 crore. Recently, it surpassed director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Animal (Rs 553.87 crore) to take the fifth spot on the list of the biggest Indian movies domestically. While it now aims to dethrone director Atlee’s Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Jawan (Rs 640.25 crore), this appears to be too large a gap to bridge. Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (Rs 1030.42 crore) has remained at the top of this list since its release in 2017.
While the Hindi edition of Kalki minted Rs 2.5 crore on Monday, the original Telugu version contributed Rs 1.35 crore. The film’s Malayalam, Tamil, and Kannada versions recorded Rs 25 lakh, Rs 15 lakh, and Rs 5 lakh, respectively. On Saturday, the movie’s producers, Vyjayanthi Films, announced that its global gross had breached the Rs 1,000 crore mark, making it the seventh Indian film to achieve this feat.
On Monday, the movie’s 2D version achieved an overall occupancy rate of 19.38 per cent in the Telugu market. The morning shows started with a 15.01 per cent occupancy, which increased to 20.41 per cent in the afternoon and peaked at 22.71 per cent in the evening. At the same time, its 3D version recorded an overall occupancy rate of 18.34 per cent.
