Manmarziyaan box office day 3: Anurag Kashyap beats personal record, but it’s among Abhishek Bachchan’s lowest openings

Director Anurag Kashyap’s first romantic drama, Manmarziyaan, is also shaping up to be his biggest opener. After raking in Rs 3.5 crore on Friday, the film made Rs 5.1 crore on Saturday and a further Rs 5.7 crore on Sunday to take its opening weekend total to Rs 14.3 crore.

According to trade analyst Taran Adarsh, given the film’s popular genre and music, “the business should have been higher”. He had predicted on Friday 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. The film jumped 45% on Saturday but only 11% on Sunday.

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 14.3 crore total marks director Kashyap’s best ever opening weekend total. His last film, the boxing drama Mukkabaaz, managed approximately Rs 10 crore during its entire theatrical run, while the ones before that, Raman Raghav 2.0 and Ugly, barely crossed the Rs 7 crore and Rs 6 crore marks in total. By contrast, Abhishek’s last release, the 2016 comedy Housefull 3, made Rs 15 crore on its first day. His last hit as a lead was 2013’s Dhoom 3.

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.”

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