“Tiger Zinda Hai” roars at Bollywood box office

Salman Khan's box office returns have been steady in the last few years, and his latest release, Katrina Kaif co-starring spy thriller sequel “Tiger Zinda Hai” has opened big at the Bollywood office.

According to leading trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the film has opened to packed houses, gathering more than Rs 33 crore on day one from 5700 screens worldwide.

This makes “Tiger Zinda Hai” the second-highest opening film of the year after box office juggernaut “Baahubali 2”.

The film raked in more than Rs 6 crore in UAE and over 1 crore in Australia.

As per boxofficeindia.com, the number of cinema-goers in India has gone down to 22.5 crore in 2017 from 34 crore in 2013. This coupled with rising ticket prices has presented a big problem for the producers who look for recovering their production cost within the first weekend. Now, their films need to run in the cinema halls for at least 10 days to start churning profits, according to Hindustan Times.

The huge number of theatres “Tiger Zinda Hai” has been released might be a solace. Even 60% occupancy can ensure a weekend with more than Rs 66 crore.

The film, a sequel to “Ek Tha Tiger”, is the story of daredevil RAW agent Tiger returning from exile. He, along with Pakistani agent and his wife Zoya (Katrina Kaif), is in the den of the world's most dreaded terrorists, in a rescue mission of abducted nurses.