The Akshay Kumar starrer Indian historical drama, Samrat Prithviraj, is only selling tickets at an average rate of 10% of their total stock which means the film will earn less than Rs. 2 crores. According to our research, the movie has earned approximately Rs. 18 lakhs so far which is nowhere near what one would expect from a big budget period drama such as this one. Of all three national chain theaters- PVR, Inox and Cinepolis – only 27% of their theater seats were sold yesterday according to our sources or just around 15 thousand seats out of 60 thousand seats available across the entire theater inventory. To compare it to past movies, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Rajkumar Ranjha had 100% occupancy rates in theatres across India and grossed over 1 million rupees according to trade reports on Box Office India.
There are a few smaller theaters that have been able to sell enough tickets for their screenings, but these do not matter in the larger scheme of things when most openings see over 45% of its ticket sales come from national chains. There is also no point in buying advanced tickets here because they would only account for less than 10%. It’s also important to note this fact because it might mean movie-goers will purchase them at the theater tomorrow instead.
Samrat Prithviraj’s tickets are priced at a higher rate than Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, however it has managed to earn only 65% of the earnings that was expected. Generally speaking, an opening day collection for a movie is triple that of its advance booking prices; However, with Prithviraj having such low numbers despite high expectations means its opening night will be much greater and it’ll break even faster than anticipated.
