Manmarziyaan box office day 1: Abhishek Bachchan’s comeback opens on dull note, makes Rs 3.5 crore

Director Anurag Kashyap’s first romantic drama, Manmarziyaan, had a dull opening at the box office. According to trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the film’s first day takings were Rs 3.5 crore.

Adarsh in a tweet wrote that the film had a slow start in the morning but saw an upward trend by the end of Friday. He predicted that the film’s day-to-day numbers will show an increase on Saturday and Sunday, as the current trends suggest, but that the ‘real test’ will be how it performs during the week.

Manmarziyaan, which marks actor Abhishek Bachchan’s return to films after a two-year break, also stars Taapsee Pannu and Vicky Kaushal. Each of the film’s three leads has received glowing reviews for their performances.

The Rs 3.52 crore opening marks director Kashyap’s best debut in years. His last film, the boxing drama Mukkabaaz, managed approximately Rs 10 crore in total during its theatrical run, while the one before that, Ugly, Raman Raghav 2.0, barely crossed the Rs 7 crore mark. By contrast, Abhishek’s last release, the 2016 comedy Housefull 3, made Rs 15 crore on its first day.

The Hindustan Times review, giving the film 2.5 stars out of 5, noted that Manmarziyaan “is a quirky film with incredibly compelling characters, but, as a love story, it eventually squanders its momentum.”

Meanwhile, Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor’s recent horror-comedy, Stree, is on the cusp of crossing the coveted Rs 100 crore mark. Adarsh said that come Saturday, the film will become the latest member of the Rs 100 crore club. Nine films have already crossed the Rs 100 crore mark in 2018.

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