Baby John box office collection Day 1: Varun Dhawan-starrer makes less than Mufasa and Pushpa 2 on Christmas, earns Rs 12.5 cr

Baby John box office collection Day 1: The Varun Dhawan-starrer Baby John was released on Christmas Day, but the film has had a rather mediocre opening for a holiday release. On its first day in theatres, the film made Rs 12.5 crore at the box office, as per industry tracker Sacnilk. Produced by Atlee and directed by Kalees, Baby John is Varun’s first attempt at a ‘mass’ actioner.

Baby John witnessed a 24.97 percent Hindi occupancy on its first day. The film was given 1046 shows in Delhi-NCR, which reported a 25.75 percent occupancy, and 801 shows in the Mumbai region, with 26.25 percent occupancy. The film could not match up to either Mufasa: The Lion King or Pushpa 2: The Rule’s collections. Pushpa 2, which has been in the theatres for three weeks now, made more money than Baby John did on its opening day. Pushpa 2 made Rs 19.75 crore on its 21st day and out of this total, Rs 15 crore came from their Hindi shows. Mufasa, which has also released across multiple languages, made Rs 14.25 crore on its sixth day, and saw a significant spike in its collections because of the holiday.

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Baby John is Varun’s first release in two years. He was last seen in Amar Kaushik’s 2022 film Bhediya, which made Rs 7.48 crore on opening day and concluded its domestic run with Rs 66.65 crore. Before that, his film Jugjugg Jeeyo, which starred many other A-listers, made Rs 9.28 crore on opening day, and a lifetime collection of Rs 85.03 crore. While most of Varun’s films have opened in the same range, his biggest opener to date was one of his biggest flops, Kalank. Also starring many other A-listers, Kalank made Rs 21.6 crore on opening day with Rs 80 crore in lifetime collections.

Baby John has been marketed as a pan-Indian entertainer with all the elements of a massy South film. The film also stars Keerthy Suresh, Jackie Shroff and Wamiqa Gabbi. Despite the rigorous promotions done by the star cast of the film, the marketing hasn’t translated in box office numbers. It is yet to be seen in Baby John will survive the holiday season against Pushpa 2 and Mufasa.