'Dabangg 2' rakes in Rs 49.5 crore in its opening weekend

The first installment of Salman Khan's Dabangg went on to break box office records. And on a similar note, Dabangg 2 too has kicked off on a celebratory mode. The film has already raked in an impressive figure of around Rs 49.5crore in the opening weekend, beating the record of 3 Idiots that was at Rs 38 crore.

A source says, "It was Salman's first release in many years on a non-holiday (Eid or Christmas) and it collected around Rsu00a020 crore on the opening day itself. The film however did see a drop in its second day collection with Rs17 crores."

Trade analysts also point out that despite the ongoing T20 series, the film collected Rs 24 crore on Sunday, making its first three day-collection Rsu00a061 crore. This beat Salman's previous film Ek Tha Tiger (Rsu00a057 crore after three days) hands down.

Nagpur-based exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi says, "Anything that Salman touches these days becomes gold! For a non-holiday period, the film has taken a phenomenal opening (the biggest-ever by a big margin, Rowdy Rathore stood at Rsu00a015 crore) and is going steady on Monday too! With no serious opposition coming its way till January 11, the film is poised to become a huge blockbuster."

Trade pandit Amod Mehra says, "It has surely been a very good weekend and it is bound to make merry money on Christmas day. But the trade expected slightly better collection, given that the film has 3,500 screens. And given the length of the film, there are more shows in single screens too. But now the bigger challenge for Dabangg 2 will be to break Ek Tha Tiger's record."