Weekend was a deciding factor for Vijay Deverakonda’s Kingdom, which released on Thursday to a massive box office opening but largely mixed reviews. After garnering Rs 7.5 crore and Rs 8 crore on Friday and Saturday respectively, Kingdom collected 7 crores on Sunday, registering a minor but crucial dip.
A drop in collections on Sunday is never a good sign for a film that hasn’t registered record-breaking opening figures to begin with, and continues to depend on word-of-mouth response for a longer run at boxoffice. Monday onwards, it remains to be seen whether Kingdom can gradually inch towards the 100-crore mark in terms of gross collections, which is reportedly the film’s goal in terms of break-even point. The film’s domestic figures stand at 40.56 crore (nett), as of Sunday, according to Sacnilk.com.
Earlier, the film had also witnessed substantial decline in its overseas, merely collecting 3.65 crore in the following two days at boxoffice, after registering an impressive opening of 13.5 cr. The film’s overseas figures for Sunday are yet to be determined.
It also remains to be seen where Kingdom can overtake the collections of a film like Kuberaa, another content driven film from a director largely known for his unconventional storytelling, or Hit 3, another film billed as an action-thriller. While it opened with similar collections as Kingdom, Kuberaa had held up much better on the weekends and its subsequent run at the boxoffice, possibly owing to its larger reach in Tamil Nadu as well, garnering a total of Rs 138 cr worldwide.
However, what definitely helps Kingdom is the absence of any big theatrical releases the coming week, which ensures Kingdom will remain the first pick for most Telugu film-goers for another 6 days before War 2 and Coolie hit the theatres on August 14.
Produced by S Naga Vamsi and Sai Sounjanya, Kingdom also stars Satyadev and Bhagyashri Borse.
