Rs 315 cr in 18 days: 3 Idiots is India’s biggest hit
Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots has made a new record - the film has earned 315 crores worldwide in just 19 days, which makes it the biggest movie at the Box office, claimed the producers of the film.
Rising food prices haven’t affected ticket sales of a movie that has smashed all box-office records to emerge as India’s biggest Hindi film ever — in 18 days.
HT Image
3 Idiots closed the weekend with a worldwide collection — it released in 40 countries — of Rs 315 crore.
Its unprecedented crowd-pulling power is evident when you consider that Ghajini, the movie that is now second best, took 13 months to Rs 200 crore.
3 Idiots, a rollicking tale of three students coping with the pressures of an engineering college, is now taking in an average of about Rs 17 crore every day.
“All our arithmetic, all our calculations have been proved wrong,” said veteran trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
The film’s success comes at a time when the middle-class is tightening its belt because of rising food prices. Last week when 3 Idiots was shattering all records, food inflation was at an 11-year high.
When 3 Idiots released, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra told multiplexes to charge the highest rates
possible. “I remember people saying, ‘Who’ll pay Rs 450 for a ticket at time when people are tightening their belts?’” said Adarsh. “Now, ticket prices just don’t seem to matter.”
No one can clearly explain why the movie is such a hit.
“I have no idea how to describe what is happening,” Aamir Khan, writes in his blog. “Some suggestions and explanations, PLEASE.”
The figures for 3 Idiots are not inflation adjusted and do not factor in pre-multiplex hits like Sholay or Gaddar.
Samar Halarnkar is editor of IndiaSpend, a data-drive nonproft focussed on public-interest journalism. He has written two books and has been a reporter and editor for 25 years. He tweets as @samar11