Saturday belonged to Welcome to the Jungle. Akshay Kumar’s long-gestating third chapter in the Welcome franchise — more than a decade after Welcome Back landed in 2015 — has picked up real steam on its first weekend, silencing at least some of the pre-release scepticism around whether the IP still had the pull it once did.
Day 2 numbers suggest it does.
Directed by Ahmed Khan, the film released on June 26 into a fairly crowded marketplace, going up against Cocktail 2 and Main Vaapas Aaunga, yet managed to hold its ground where it mattered most: at the family single-screen and tier-2 multiplex belt.
Day 2 numbers: Rs 20 crore net, a 31% jump over Friday
As per Sacnilk, Welcome to the Jungle posted a net collection of Rs 20 crore on Day 2 across 10,396 shows — a 31.1% growth over its opening day figure of Rs 15.25 crore. Add the Rs 3.75 crore from paid premiere shows on Thursday night, and the film’s cumulative India net collection reaches Rs 39 crore, with the India gross at Rs 46.80 crore.
The occupancy story on Saturday was encouraging. Overall footfall clocked in at 28.6%, but the real indicator was the night show figure — 54.85%, according to Sacnilk — which points to sustained walk-in interest well into the evening, not just advance booking momentum dying out by afternoon.
City-level data tells a similar story. Mumbai led with 41% overall occupancy and night shows touching 66%. Lucknow punched above its weight at 41.8% overall, with evening slots at 55%. Jaipur, Chandigarh, and NCR all hovered in the 39–41% range.
What stands out is how the film is performing not just in the big metros but in mid-sized cities — precisely the markets the Welcome franchise has historically owned and where nostalgia for the original 2007 film runs deepest.
Worldwide gross crosses Rs 57 crore; Cocktail 2 left trailing
Overseas, the film added Rs 6 crore on Day 2, taking its international gross to Rs 10.70 crore. Per Sacnilk, the worldwide gross now stands at Rs 57.50 crore after just two days. The comparison with Cocktail 2 is stark — the Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, and Rashmika Mandanna starrer, now in its second week, is a distant second on Saturday charts and has not managed to close the gap.
Welcome to the Jungle’s edge comes partly from the sheer weight of its ensemble — Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Arshad Warsi, Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon, Lara Dutta, Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, Tusshar Kapoor, and Shreyas Talpade, among others — and partly from what that cast represents to a generation that grew up on the original. A Rs 50 crore-plus opening weekend is now well within reach. Whether the film holds through Monday will be the real measure of its staying power.