Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan continues to demolish records at the box office. Directed by Siddharth Anand, the spy thriller, also featuring John Abraham and Deepika Padukone, has boosted Bollywood’s flailing confidence after a rough 2022.
Pathaan is going strong in its second week, and is expected to have earned around Rs 6.7 crore on day 15 of release, according to the industry tracker Sacnilk. This brings the total domestic collection of the film to Rs 452.9 crore nett approximately. The film even managed to pass the second Monday test with flying colours, earning Rs 15.7 crore, and earned Rs 7.75 crore on Tuesday. Pathaan has already broken KGF: Chapter 2’s record of Rs 434 crore in the Hindi market.
Pathaan has crushed several records in its journey to becoming the highest-grossing Bollywood film. It has beaten Salman Khan’s Tiger Zinda Hai (Rs 337 crore), and last week it raged past Aamir Khan’s Dangal (Rs 387 crore). The film is now eyeing the all-time Hindi record of SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, which has a total collection of Rs 510 crore.
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Globally, Pathaan has raked in excellent numbers as well, and is expected to cross Rs 875 crore today. It has already crossed RRR’s record of $14 million dollars (Rs 115 crore) in US and Canada. Barely two months into 2023, Pathaan has emerged as one of the highest-grossing films of the year, behind four Chinese films, including Full River Red, The Wandering Earth 2, Boonie Bears: Guardian Code and Hidden Blade. By the third weekend, Pathaan is expected to cross Rs 900 crore.
Pathaan’s staggering success has revived Bollywood, as the film industry did not have much to celebrate in 2022. Apart from being plagued by boycott calls, only a handful of films last year could be counted as successes, including The Kashmir Files, Brahmastra, Gangubai Kathiawadi, Drishyam 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyya 2. On the other hand, Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, a film that he had been working on for years, bombed at the box office, along with several Akshay Kumar’s films, such as Bachchan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj, Ram Setu and Raksha Bandhan.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan marks his return to starring roles after over four years. The actor had almost been written off by many, as each of his last four films — Jab Harry Met Sejal, Fan, Raees and Zero — had failed to make an impact at the box office. Weathering personal and professional crises in the past few years, SRK returned in an action avatar with Pathaan. The film follows the story of a spy, who has to chase down a ruthless mercenary. The character is now a part of the YRF Spy Universe, with Salman Khan’s Tiger and Hrithik Roshan’s Kabir.
