Sanju beats Race 3 at Box Office in just 5 days: Remember what Salman said about Ranbir playing Dutt?

By Vineeta Kumar

on July 06, 2018

Actor Ranbir Kapoor has finally taken over Box Office with his latest release, Sanju. Expectations were already high from this Rajkumar Hirani's directorial for many reasons - it's a biopic on actor Sanjay Dutt, Hirani's successful track record of entertaining audience, and Ranbir's evident hardwork that went behind adapting Dutt's mannerisms for the film.

Now that it's raking in a lot of moolah, it's also eyeing to shatter a few Box Office records and at the same time creating new ones. Sanju has collected Rs 186. 41 cr within six days of its run. It's second week total is expected to be more than Rs 250 cr, which is a big feat considering Sanju is non-holiday release and doesn't ride on the strong 'Khan-power.' In fact, this amount that it has minted in six days is more than the lifetime collection of actor Salman Khan's last release, Race 3. The Remo D'Souza's directorial has collected Rs 166. 75 cr in 19 days. Sanju, on the other hand, crossed this figure with its five day-collections -Rs 167. 51 cr.

Recommended Read: Sanju: Ranbir Kapoor’s film attains blockbuster status, set to enter Rs 200 crore club soon

The Khan's big Eid release this year opened to a stormy presence at the ticket window. It collected Rs 29. 17 cr on the first day of its release, the Eid holiday. Sanju, on the other hand, opened to garner Rs 34. 75 cr, thereby, beating Race 3 to become the biggest opener of the year so far. Here's the list of the top five Bollywood openers of 2018:

Sanju - Rs 34. 75 cr
Race 3 - Rs 29. 17 cr
Baaghi 2 - Rs 25. 10 cr
Padmaavat - Rs 19 cr
Veere Di Wedding - Rs 10. 70 cr

On analysing closely, it would not be difficult to find out that it's a straight war of content at the Box Office. Race 3 survived its opening days because of the star power, but got dismissed with the arrival of the decisive Monday. Look at the day-wise breakup of Race 3 till its first Monday:

Friday - Rs 29. 17 cr
Saturday - Rs 38. 14 cr
Sunday - Rs 39. 16 cr
Mon - Rs 14. 24 cr

Sanju didn't have a big star appeal. Ranbir Kapoor didn't have a massy image before the movie released. The only two things that got audience intrigued were a) faith in Hirani's style of film-making and b) the story of one of the most controversial actors in Bollywood, Sanjay Dutt. It is purely because of the content that audience is kept glued to the big screen. Sanju passed the crucial Monday test and is still flying high.

The movie has done great good to the man in the lead - Ranbir Kapoor. The actor wanted Sanju to bring his career back on the track. Expressing how much he wanted a Box Office hit, he also said:

"I don't want to a talented actor, I want to be a successful actor."

Now that he has proven the mettle of his acting and also registered success with Sanju, it becomes so ironic to remember what Salman had said about Ranbir playing Dutt while promoting his Race 3. He went on to record to say:

"I was wondering why is someone other than him (Dutt) is playing his part in the film. I think the last 7-8 years of his life in the movie should have been done by himself as no one can do it better than him".

Guess who's eating his words now!