Kranti box office collection Day 3: Can the Darshan starrer close off opening weekend with Rs. 25 crores?

Following a decent opening at the box office, Challenging Star Darshan's latest offering Kranti encountered a slump in collections on Day #2. Having collected approximately Rs. 9.8 crores (nett) on Day 1, the film managed to yield only Rs. 4.1 crores with a 58% dip in earnings, proving that the underwhelming reviews have had a significant bearing on the box office performance.

And the same pattern seems to persist as the latest trade reports reveal that Kranti has put on a similar show on Day #3 of its theatrical run by collecting close to Rs. 4.15 crores. This takes the three-day collection over the Rs. 18 crore-mark and with projections for Day 4, too, looking similar, Kranti is likely to close off the opening weekend around the Rs. 22 crore mark. 

While the numbers do not look appalling, one reckons that considering the popularity that Darshan Thoogudeepa boasts and the extravagant pre-release promotions that went in, Kranti was expected to perform a lot better. Aside from the poor critical reviews and generally mixed reactions from the audience, one could attribute the mediocre box office run to the limited theatrical release of the film. Kranti, despite being billed as a pan-Indian film all along, was eventually released as a standalone Kannada film in theatres with Karnataka being the only area of focus for the makers. That combined with the Pathaan impact can be seen as the major parameters navigating the Kranti theatrical run: the Kannada film also has had a unbelievably small release outside Karnataka.

With the opening weekend deciding the fates of most theatrical releases post the pandemic, one could see Kranti's box office performance witnessing another slump in the coming days. Fans of Darshan, despite the glaring shortcomings of the film, have embraced the superstar's latest endeavour but one can expect their collective effort to run out of steam sooner than later. It would certainly be interesting to see how the film fares after all.

Kranti was also expected to kick off 2023 with a bang for the Kannada Film Industry which concluded 2022 on a largely encouraging note. Darshan's reluctance to promote the film outside Karnataka is also likely to have played a huge role in the limited reach.