Race 3 Box Office collection: Salman Khan conquers regardless

Salman Khan

The unfavourable reviews and memes designed around its dialogues notwithstanding, Salman Khan's Race 3 has found itself zooming past the Rs 100-crore mark over the opening weekend.

After opening at Rs 29.17 crore on Friday, the Remo D'Souza-directed film pocketed a whopping Rs 38.14 crore on Saturday and Rs 39.16 crore on Sunday, to take the final tally to Rs 106.47 crore. With this, the Eid offering became Khan's 13th film to earn a place in the coveted club, making him the actor with the highest number of Rs 100-crore grossers to his name. Race 3 also has the distinction of having the highest opening weekend collections of the year so far.

Despite its impressive numbers, trade analysts have predicted a big drop in the coming days. Citing that the negative word-of-mouth is likely to affect the multi-starrer in the long run, buzz in the trade circles is that even the Khan effect can take the fare only thus far.

Trade expert Amod Mehra is of the opinion that the actioner - also featuring Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez and Bobby Deol, among others - will struggle to score a double century. "The euphoria around Salman Khan's Eid release has already worked and that shows in the first three days' collection. But things are not looking encouraging. Barring die-hard Salman fans, audiences haven't liked the film. It will be difficult for it to sustain, especially in multiplexes," says Mehra, adding, "It will be a miracle if the film reaches Rs 200 crore. If that doesn't happen, distributors, who have paid a heavy price, will stand to lose."

One may argue that Khan's outings have often proved to be critic-proof, but Mehra adds that unlike his past releases, Race 3 has not found favour with the multiplex-going audience. "However, the film is going strong in the single screeners across the country. The only advantage is that there is no big release next week, so that will help add numbers to the lifetime collection of the film." The worldwide collections of Race 3 are pegged at over Rs 180 crore.

Also Read: Will Shah Rukh Khan follow in Salman Khan's footsteps?

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