Dhurandhar continues to be an unstoppable force at the box office, wreaking havoc even on its 2nd Monday. By midday, the film is running ahead of all weekdays from last week. In fact, Monday is currently outselling its 2nd Friday, which underlines the sheer insanity of its run. There should be some relative slowdown during the night shows, as Friday evenings and nights are typically stronger than regular weekdays, but it will not be a surprise if the film ends up matching or even exceeding its 2nd Friday numbers today.
The Ranveer Singh starrer should comfortably cross Rs. 25 crore nett today. Subject to how the evening and night shows go, the film could move towards Rs. 30 crore nett. That would mean yet another daily collection record for the film, demolishing the existing record of Rs. 19 crore nett, held by Pushpa 2 (Hindi), by at least 30 per cent. So far, Dhurandhar has already rewritten records for the biggest-ever collections on a 2nd Friday, 2nd Saturday and 2nd Sunday.
Making sense of this trend, the longer runtime limits not just the number of shows, but being over three hours long film but also restricts the time windows in which a large section of the audience can watch it. As a result, even if there is spare capacity early in the day or very late shows, the prime-time shows are running at capacity across all major centres. This was visible over the weekend, when advances were pointing to a bigger day than what eventually materialised. That unconsumed demand is now spilling over into the weekdays. That aside, the film is gaining additional awareness every day, turning into a cultural phenomenon, getting into mainstream media and conversation.
The film was already certain to cross Rs. 200 crore nett in its second week, but this extraordinary 2nd Monday has turned that into a cakewalk, with the total now likely to be around or even over Rs. 225 crore nett. It also makes the Rs. 600 crore nett mark virtually a lock. The Rs. 700 crore nett, which seemed a bit of a stretch just yesterday, no longer looks out of reach. Of course, there will be work to do for the weeks ahead, particularly the next week when it faces Avatar 3, but at this point, it is clearly doable.
