Rs 15 crore for ‘Don 2’ on day 1

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: Looks like it is going to be a good year for Bollywood. Shah Rukh Khan`s latest offering ‘Don 2’ raked in Rs 15 crores on its opening day with trade pundits predicting the figures to go up as it is a Christmas weekend. The year has seen some astounding Box Office collection for several films. While Bodyguard is leading the pack by garnering approximately Rs 89 crores in the first five days, SRK’s other film ‘RA.One’ is fourth in the list with a collection of Rs 80.3 crores in first five days. Although the collection of ‘Don 2’ on its first day is lower than these two hits, Sanjeev Lamba, chief executive officer at Reliance Entertainment, felt it was due to a working Friday. Speaking to a daily, Gautam Dutta, chief operating officer, PVR Cinemas said, "Average occupancy across shows was 85-90%. A good thing is that bulk bookings by corporates for the next two days are also very high." The film witnessed a great opening in overseas too. In the UAE, it grossed $360,000, which is more than Khan`s My Name is Khan which had collected $240,000 on the first day. In the UK, the movie, which opened on Wednesday with limited shows, has raked in £202,000. Directed by Farhan Akhtar, the film is a sequel of ‘Don’ which was a remake of the70s classic by the same name. Even though critics have stated that the film borrows from several Hollywood classics, the film is being lauded for its action sequences and SRK’s performance. An independent distributor predicted that ‘Don 2’ would collect more than Rs 35 crore from the overseas market itself. According to sources, Reliance Entertainment has spent a whopping Rs 25 crore on the publicity of the film.