Top highest first day grossers at the Indian box office: Prabhas led Salaar Fourth

Prabhas dominates the list of top openers, with four entries to his name, including the biggest one on the top. Since 2017, all his releases have opened in the top five, except for Radhe Shyam.

By Jatinder Singh

Published on Dec 23, 2023 | 03:35 PM IST | 240.2K

Prabhas in Salaar (image courtesy of Hombale Productions)

Salaar opened with an estimated Rs. 96 crore approx at the Indian box office on Friday. This places the Prabhas led action drama at the fourth position in the list of biggest openers at the Indian box office, eclipsing Jawan, which grossed Rs. 90 crore earlier this year. The three films that stand ahead of Salaar are Baahubali 2, RRR and KGF Chapter 2. The top four are by two big director brands, SS Rajamouli and Prashant Neel, with one film being a franchise sequel and the other being their immediate follow-up to that.

Prabhas dominates the list of top openers, with four entries to his name, including the biggest one on the top. Since 2017, all his releases have opened in the top ten, in fact, top five, except for Radhe Shyam. This is made possible by the fact that he is a big star in the Telugu film industry with a good amount of recognition in the Hindi belt. Telugu states are known for providing a big initial to the films, with the potential of going over Rs. 50 crore comfortably in just two states. Then add to that Karnataka which also opens big for Telugu films and if you can get even decent to good numbers in Hindi, that is the recipe for putting up big numbers nationwide.

Despite that, it's been nearly seven years now that Baahubali 2 remains the biggest opener in the country. The two films last year came very close but remained a bit short. KGF Chapter 2 probably would have gotten the deal done but the clash in Tamil Nadu proved to be the difference. Next year will see some more challengers, the most serious one being Pushpa 2 and this might be it. However, a potential clash with Singham 3 in North India adds an element of uncertainty that might once again keep it short of the record.