Maalik box office report day 1: Rajkummar Rao’s film off to slow start, trails behind Superman

Rajkummar Rao's Maalik opened to a weak ₹3.35 crore with low occupancy and mixed reviews. Facing tough competition, its box office fate now hinges on strong word-of-mouth.

Rajkummar Rao in Maalik

On Friday, the highly anticipated gangster drama Maalik by Rajkummar Rao hit theatres, but the film's opening day earnings fell short of expectations. Manushi Chhillar, Saurabh Shukla, Saurabh Sachdeva, Swanand Kirkire, and Prosenjit Chatterjee are all part of the ensemble cast in this film directed by Pulkit. According to Sacnilk, the film's first-day earnings were only Rs 3.35 crore, even though it featured a solid cast and Rao's new screen persona.

Low occupancy

On Friday, the film had a meagre 12.86% occupancy rate in Hindi cinemas worldwide. Occupancy for morning concerts was 6.65%, which improved slightly to 11.12% in the afternoon and 11.78% in the evening. The night shows had a slightly higher occupancy rate of 21.88%. Among the cities, 26.67% was the highest occupancy rate recorded in Chennai, followed by 24% in Lucknow and 22% in Jaipur. The opposite was true for key markets like Delhi NCR (14.25%), which failed to impress, and Mumbai (13%).

Rajkummar Rao's prior release, Bhool Chuk Maaf had a Day 1 figure of Rs 7 crore, making Maalik's opening significantly worse. The Diplomat starring John Abraham, had an opening weekend gross of Rs. 4 crore; therefore, it also performed worse than expected. On the other hand, Maalik was able to earn more than the opening day total of Rs 32 lakh for Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan, which stars Vikrant Massey and Shanaya Kapoor.

ALSO READ: Maalik: Rajkummar Rao Falls Flat In This Same Old Story

Maalik faces tough competition

Maalik will have a tough time competing with other films in theatres. Within the realm of domestic films, Metro... In Dino which is currently in its second week, grossed Rs. 2.25 crore on Friday and a total of Rs. 29.1 crore. At the same time, a huge number of Indians still go to see Hollywood films. Jurassic World Rebirth, which is currently in its second week of release, earned Rs. 3 crore on Friday, bringing its total earnings to more than Rs. 58 crore. Another factor is the new DC film Superman, which has already opened to a robust Rs. 7 crore, which is twice as much as Maalik.

Thus far, the film's reaction has been rather muted. Review scores and online responses indicate that fans were let down by Rao's action-packed avatar, despite their high expectations. Critics have criticised the film for having a predictable plot and flat characters. To avoid being labelled as an underperformer, Maalik—which had a reported budget of Rs 54 crore—will require a robust opening weekend performance.

Maalik has gotten off to a sluggish start at the box office, but whether word-of-mouth can give it a much-needed lift is still up in the air.

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