Laal Singh Chaddha weekend box office: Aamir Khan film fails to beat Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, future looks bleak

Laal Singh Chaddha weekend box office: The Aamir Khan-starrer hasn't picked up the pace and trails behind Kartik Aaryan's Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 in terms of opening weekend earnings.

Aamir Khan-starrer Laal Singh Chaddha hasn’t really managed to set the cash registers ringing. On its fourth day of release--Sunday--it earned around ₹10 crore at the Indian box office, a mere 15% rise from its Saturday earnings. This marginal improvement hasn’t been enough to offset the slow start the film showed and its sharp drop on day two, meaning the film is likely to have rather underwhelming lifetime figures.

Laal Singh Chaddha stars Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

As per sources, Laal Singh Chaddha has earned somewhere in the range of ₹9.5-10.5 crore in the domestic circuit on Sunday. This takes its four-day weekend earnings to around ₹37-38 crore. In isolation, the number may look substantial but given the wide release the film had and Aamir’s star power, it is quite below expectations. Add to it the fact that Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2--a much smaller film--did better in its opening weekend, and the numbers do begin to look bleak for the film.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, which had Kartik Aaryan, Tabu, and Kiara Advani in lead, released on May 20 and earned ₹55 crore in its opening weekend, a number which looks really out of reach for Laal Singh Chaddha right now. Film trade analyst tweeted how Laal Singh Chaddha and Aksay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan--which also released on August 11--are unlikely to cross Bhool Bhulaiyaa’s three-day weekend earnings despite getting a really extended five-day weekend. “Going by the current trends, #LaalSinghChaddha and #RakshaBandhan won't be able to surpass opening weekend biz of #BhoolBhulaiyaa2 [ ₹ 55.96 cr; non-holiday; 3-day weekend], despite enjoying 5-day extended wknd, with 3 major holidays,” Taran wrote in his tweet on Monday morning.

Laal Singh Chaddha has a chance to further increase its earnings given Monday is Independence Day and Janmashtami, another major holiday, falls on August 18 i.e. Thursday. Given so many holidays in week on, the film should earn its major chunk by day eight but the sharp fall after day one and the nominal rise since has meant it's unlikely to pick up pace now. Industry insiders say that going by the current trends, Laal Singh Chaddha is likely to stay below the ₹100-crore mark domestically by the end of its run, which would be a massive disappointment for Aamir.

Laal Singh Chaddha has been directed by Advait Chandan of Secret Superstar fame and written by actor-writer Atul Kulkarni. It also stars Kareena Kapoor as Laal's childhood love Rupa, Mona Singh as his mom and marks Naga Chaitanya's Bollywood debut. The film is the official Hindi remake of Tom Hanks’ 1994 film Forrest Gump.