‘Sultan’ Estimated to Make 150 Crore In The First Weekend?

Trade analysts expect ‘Sultan’ to cross 150 cr this weekend. Possible?

Salman Khan in a still from Sultan. (Photo courtesy: Twitter)

Ever since Sultan was announced, everyone’s been speculating the mind boggling numbers it would draw at the box-office. After all with hits like Wanted, Dabangg, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, Kick, and Bajrangi Bhaijaan in the last six years, Salman Khan has time and again proved that he owns the Eid weekend.

Yash Raj Films has confirmed that the cost of production is Rs 70 crore, and Rs 20 crore has been spent on publicity and advertising. The film is released in over 4,000 screens in India and 1,100 overseas, which is a record in itself. Satellite rights of the film is pre-sold by YRF to Sony Entertainment Television for a huge price.

There is so much excitement about the film among trade analysts that many are expecting it to have the biggest opening ever of about Rs. 32-34 cr beating YRF’s last release Fan, which earned Rs. 19.20 cr, the biggest opening of the year so far.

Salman Khan in a still from Sultan. (Photo courtesy: YashRaj Films)

For Salman fans in Pakistan, Sultan will be released in around 75 screens in 55 cinemas, a number slightly lower than that of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, which released across 80 screens over there. The Khaleej Times reports that all the shows of Sultan for the first five days have already been sold out in Pakistan.

Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma in a still from Sultan. (Photo Courtesy: YashRaj Films)

The advance booking back home has been exceptional too.

Check out the ‘fully booked’ signs outside two single screen theatres in Mumbai.

While Sultan is expected to easily cross the 100 crore mark in the first weekend itself, insiders are hoping for the film to break another record by crossing Rs 150 crore before Monday morning as the film has an advantage of two extra days for being a Wednesday release with the Eid weekend.

“It is likely to cross Rs. 130 crore as everything is in its favour, be it the release date, stars, look and even the music. I would not be surprised if it crosses Rs 140 crore,” says distributor Ramesh Sippy.

Will this be another mega-hit for Salman? The star sure hopes so, after all it’s not every day that he lets his film take over his ‘Being Human’ t-shirt designs: