Housefull 4 box office collection day 1: Akshay Kumar’s film scores 2nd highest comedy opening ever; Saand Ki Aankh, Made in China falter

Housefull 4, starring Akshay Kumar and an ensemble cast, opened well in the pre-Diwali weekend. The multi-starrer comedy clashed with Bhumi Pednekar and Taapsee Pannu’s Saand Ki Aankh and Rajkummar Rao and Mouni Roy’s Made In China on Friday.

Housefull 4 opened with ₹18.85 crore, which is the second biggest comedy debut of all time after Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Again. That film had opened to ₹30 crore around the same Diwali window in 2017.

Housefull 4 also stars Kriti Sanon, Bobby Deol, Riteish Deshmukh, Kriti Kharbanda and Pooja Hegde. The film has also set the highest opening in the Housefull franchise as the last instalment, Housefull 3, had opened at ₹15 crore in 2016.

Film trade analyst Girish Johar had told Hindustan Times ahead of the film’s release, “Traditionally, the movie business remains dull ahead of Diwali as the people remain busy with the preparations for the festival. The business will be slightly tight in the pre-Diwali weekend but if the films are good, they can benefit in the following week which also includes the Govardhan Puja and the Bhai Dooj holidays.”

Also read: Housefull 4 movie review: This Akshay Kumar, Kriti Sanon film is uneven but funny

Meanwhile, the other two films struggled on day one. According to a report on BoxofficeIndia, Made in China recorded an opening of around ₹1 crore while Saand Ki Aankh collected just around ₹50 lakh on Friday.

Talking about the screen counts of the three films, Girish had earlier said that Housefull 4 would be released in around 3,500 screens whereas Made in China and Saand Ki Aankh had around 1500 and 1000 screens each. “Housefull 4 will surely lead at the box office while the other two can bank upon the word of mouth. But eventually the better film among them will lead in the days to come,” he had said.

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