Can Salman Khan starrer Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (PRDP) box office collections beat Shah Rukh Khan’s all time highest opening day record that was established when his film Happy New Year collected a massive Rs 44.97 crore? Both the Bollywood megastars Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, currently enjoy a massive cult-like fan following and will be seen in big ticket releases this year that are all set to burnish the actors’ already shining star.

Directed by Sooraj Barjatya, Salman Khan starrer Prem Ratan Dhan Payo sees the reunion of the director with the actor after a two decade gap. Many have predicted that PRDP will most definitely be one of this year’s biggest box office collections films. To get things off to a rocketing start is the fact that PRDP will see a release in 5,300 screens worldwide of which approximately 4,500 screens will be domestic.

The trade circuit has been quick to react to the rising expectations from Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. “Yes PRDP in all likelihood will live up to expectations”, comments Taran Adarsh, while further elaborating, “See it is the festive season of Diwali around which the film is releasing. Add to that it features one of the biggest stars Salman Khan, and is directed by Sooraj Barjatiya, who is known for his family entertainers. These coupled together, makes for a very successful film.”

Check out the photo gallery: Prem Ratan Dhan Payo

Trade analyst Komal Nahta adds, “Although I have not seen the film yet, going by the hype and promotions surrounding the film, I can say that, yes PRDP will open big. There are multiple factors that lend to this assumption. Chief among them being that PRDP has managed to entice the audience this festive season and will definitely be a crowd puller.”

Thanks to the high pitched promotions for Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and hype generated around the film, advance bookings have shown a huge spike. “In fact the advance bookings for PRDP have been simply phenomenal, and judging by this, it is safe to say that the film will have a good opening”, adds Nahta.

When prodded whether PRDP that is expected to release on a scale similar to Happy New Year (HNY), Nahta says, “Though we cannot compare the two films since they are totally different, I can say that instead of looking at HNY, I think what we need to see is whether PRDP will break the records of PK and Dhoom 3 instead.”

On the other hand, holding a different sentiment Taran Adarsh says, “As of now it is just a wait and watch game, though PRDP might and will surpass the collections of Salman Khan’s previous releases Ek Tha Tiger, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Kick, we will have to wait and watch if it surpasses HNY too.”

However, another aspect that comes to notice here is the fact that Salman Khan’s highest Opening day grosser remains Ek Tha Tiger that collected Rs 32.93 crore on its opening day. While the actor’s other releases have gone on to make it big, he has till date not managed to surpass this record, which begs the question why?

“Well Ek Tha Tiger (ETT) released on a national holiday, and as is usual for films that release on such occasions tend to feature bigger collection figures than those that don’t. In the case of Salman Khan’s films though most have released around festive seasons and holidays / extended weekends, ETT was the only one that released on a national holiday August 15”, states Taran Adarsh.

But, with PRDP now releasing on a festive weekend can we expect Salman Khan’s record of ETT to be broken?

“Now this like I said before will be a wait and watch game, we cannot really say for sure despite the positivity surrounding the film”, adds Taran.

Delving into another line of reasoning trade analyst Komal Nahta adds, “See the reason why Salman’s collections have been lacking in comparison to ETT is the simple fact that other release dates have not been conducive for collections, like for example both Kick and Bajrangi Bhaijaan, released a couple of days before Eid, a period when overall collections are relatively low. However, ETT on the other hand released on a holiday itself.”

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