Haiwaan box office collection day 3: Saif Ali Khan-Akshay Kumar film loses 1400 screens to Hanuman Ansh, earns Rs 7.35 cr

Haiwaan box office collection day 3: Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar's film earns over Rs 7 crore.

Haiwaan box office collection day 3: Priyadarshan’s crime thriller Haiwaan, starring Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar, barely managed to cross Rs 7 crore during its opening weekend, given its screens were slashed by over 1400 on its first Sunday. That led to a 26% drop in its earnings on day 3. The film has earned Rs 8.80 crore gross and Rs 7.35 crore net at the domestic box office, and Rs 11.55 crore at the worldwide box office so far.

Haiwaan sees dip on first Sunday

On Sunday (day 3), Haiwaan collected Rs 1.85 crore from 4374 screens across India. This figure is less than 12 times of what Vishal Chaturvedi’s blockbuster devotional film Hanuman Ansh earned on the same day, its sixth Sunday — Rs 22.50 crore — from 8902 screens. While Haiwaan’s number of shows were slashed by over 1400 on Sunday, around 1500 screens were added for Hanuman Ansh.

This shift in screen count led to Haiwaan witnessing a 26% decline from its Saturday (day 2) earnings of Rs 2.50 crore, which was a further dip from its opening day collection 0f Rs 3 crore, from 7244 screens on Friday. Thus, the number of shows were also reduced by around 1400 on Saturday as well, coming down to 5759 screens, as per Sacnilk.

The opening weekend box office collection of Haiwaan in India stands at Rs 7.35 crore. When compared to the sixth weekend of the Neem Karoli Baba biopic, it’s seven times less than that of the latter, which stands at over Rs 51 crore. Haiwaan’s first weekend also pales in comparison to that of last week’s holdover release, Gurmeet Singh’s crime thriller Mirzapur: The Movie, which collected Rs 36.25 crore in its second weekend, around five times than what Haiwaan did in its first.

Haiwaan’s low opening weekend despite stars

Unlike both Hanuman Ansh and Mirzapur: The Movie, Haiwaan boasts of two A-list stars in Akshay and Saif. While Saif plays the protagonist, Akshay essays the chief antagonist. This also marks the latter’s seventh pairing with director Priyadarshan. The two delivered a blockbuster, horror comedy Bhooth Bangla, earlier this year.

The opening weekend of Haiwaan is also lower than that of Akshay and Saif’s last collaboration — Vijay Krishna Acharya’s 2008 dud action thriller Tashan, which earned Rs 11 crore in the first three days at the domestic box office. However, Tashan, also starring Kareena Kapoor and Anil Kapoor, and produced by Yash Raj Films, got wiped out within a couple of weeks after collecting Rs 29.44 crore gross in India and Rs 51.60 crore net worldwide.

With the odds against Haiwaan already stacked, it has only four days, including the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi today, to optimize its domestic box office earnings, before it faces fresh competition from his wife Kareena-starrer police procedural Daayra and brother-in-law Kunal Kemmu’s spy comedy Vibe, both of which release this Friday on September 18.

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Also Read — Hanuman Ansh collection: Neem Karoli Baba film earns 118 times its budget; crosses Rs 236 cr mark

Produced by K Venkat Narayana’s KVN Productions, Haiwaan also stars Shriya Pilgaonkar, Saiyami Kher, Boman Irani, and late Asrani among others. It marks Saif and Akshay’s onscreen reunion after a gap of 18 years. It’s also the Hindi remake of Priyadarshan’s 2016 Malayalam hit Oppam, headlined by Mohanlal, who also has a cameo in this film.