Valimai vs Bheemla Nayak at box office: Pawan Kalyan outshines Ajith Kumar on opening weekend

Ajith Kumar's Valimai, Pawan Kaylan's Bheemla Nayak and Alia Bhatt's Gangubai Kathiawadi have been drawing people back to cinemas, despite getting mixed reviews.

By: Entertainment Desk

Bengaluru | March 2, 2022 12:04 PM IST

4 min read

Valimai and Bheemla Nayak opened to packed houses last week.

Since the past week, the theatres across the country have resumed business in full swing, owing to Ajith Kumar’s Valimai, Pawan Kaylan’s Bheemla Nayak and Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi. Despite getting mixed reviews, these films have been drawing people back to cinemas. It also marks the beginning of what could be called a high-voltage film season with a string of big-budget flicks set to open in cinemas in the coming weeks.

These movies have done a commendable job in reviving the public’s interest in returning to cinema, and beating the Covid-induced hesitance. Movie audience in southern states have been more enthusiastic about returning to cinemas than their northern counterparts during the pandemic.

So much so that Valimai gave the biggest opening in Ajith Kumar’s career. That achievement assumes more significance given that it opened on a working Thursday and there was no holiday around the corner. The huge box office opening for Valimai justifies filmmaker R. Parthiban’s long-time demand: the festival holidays should be reserved for the release of small and medium budget movies, while the big star movies should take non-festival dates.

Valimai debuted at the box office by raking in about Rs 35 crore domestically on Thursday, which is a first in Ajith’s career. The early morning shows and the late-night shows played a huge role in extending the firm’s earnings during the opening weekend.

According to Cinetrak, the Ajith starrer collected Rs 28 crore on its opening day in Tamil Nadu alone. The film had collected over Rs 3 crore in Karnataka, over Rs 1 crore in Kerala, over Rs 2 crore in Telugu states, and collection from the rest of the country accounted for less than Rs 1 crore on its day one. The film managed to remain strong throughout the weekend in Tamil Nadu.

Cinetrak claimed that Valimai collected about Rs 67 crore in Tamil Nadu, taking its first four-day domestic collection to Rs 82 crore. Cinetrak also said the movie’s box office performance in the international markets did not meet expectations, pegging its first-weekend collection at little more than Rs 29 crore.

Meanwhile, Pawan Kalyan’s Bheemla Nayak performed significantly well on the overseas market during its opening weekend. According to film trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the film added more than Rs 42 crore to its collection from overseas.

Bheemla Nayak also did excellent business in the Telugu states. The movie also gave Pawan one of his career-best openings. According to AndhraBoxOffice.Com, the movie opened at the box office to Rs 37 crore in Telugu states alone. The strong belief of the market is the collection numbers would have been much higher, if not for the low ticket prices imposed by the government in Andhra Pradesh. The movie was not even allowed to screen early morning shows in Andhra Pradesh affecting its opening day collection.

AndhraBoxOffice.Com pegged the movie’s three-day collection in Telugu states at over Rs 76 crore. And the worldwide collection of the movie for the same period is said to be around Rs 118 crore.

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