Zero box office day 1: Shah Rukh Khan film earns ₹20 cr, all eyes on weekend

Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma’s much-awaited film Zero released in the movie theatres on December 21. According to Boxofficeindia.com, Zero collected around ₹20 crore as per early estimates on the first day of release. The film’s collections are however, expected to improve during the weekend and on Christmas holiday.

The opening collections of the film are similar to Shah Rukh’s earlier films, Raees and Dilwale, and Salman’s Tubelight as it opened on a working Friday. Trade analyst also shared the opening figures of the film. He tweeted, “#Zero has underperformed on Day 1, despite extensive release [4380 screens] + #Christmas vacations... Sat and Sun biz extremely crucial... Fri ₹ 20.14 cr. India biz.”

The first day performance of the film is not much different from the last big release 2.0, which opened at ₹21 crore. The caveat being that these are figures for the Hindi dubbed version of the film.

Film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi expected the film to open at around ₹30 crore. He’d said, “If it turns out to be a disappointing film like Thugs of Hindostan which after an opening of ₹50 crore fell to more than 50 percent on the second day, let’s hope this doesn’t happen in this case. Aanand should create his magic yet again and make the audiences come to the cinemas.” 

However, he had also spoken about the effect the Kannada film KGF might have on Zero, “Thugs of Hindostan released day after Diwali, the biggest day for a movie business. That was a national holiday. Zero is releasing on a regular working Friday. Not only this, the significant Kannada film KGF is also releasing on the same day and will take substantial number of screens and shows. So, even that makes a difference.”

According to Boxofficeindia.com, KGF had fair collections for a dubbed film. It made ₹2 crore nett. The film performed well in the Mumbai circuit, where it collected over ₹1 crore nett.

Shah Rukh Khan plays a dwarf called Bauaa Singh in the Zero. While Katrina Kaif plays the role of an alcoholic Bollywood superstar, Anushka Sharma plays a NASA scientist with cerebral palsy. The film has been directed by Aanand L Rai.

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