'Chennai Express' breaks multiple records

Four elements — Shah Rukh Khan, Rohit Shetty, Deepika Padukone and Ramzan Eid — are responsible for a storm called Chennai Express breaking several worldwide box office records in its wake. The comedy, which urges you to leave rationality behind and encourages you to roll on the floor with laughter, has managed to bring the house down. The critics' warnings and disclaimers have proved defunct. The film has broken several records — having the highest paid preview collections, the fastest 100 crore, the highest weekend collections, the highest overseas collections for an opening weekend for a Bollywood film, and so on and so forth. The film opened in 2,550 cinemas, with approximately 3,650 screens across the country. "The film has the highest overseas collection. It released in 670 screens abroad and has collected 51 crore in the opening period," says distributor Girish Johar. "Shah Rukh has broken his own record of the highest overseas collections for the opening weekend, which was held by My Name Is Khan." It has done phenomenal business in Pakistan, USA, UK and Dubai.

And even as we report from ground zero, we can see the flag of CE flying high. (Check the numerous boxes carried with this report for an analytical view of what CE has done.) The cost of production is said to be around 50 crore, with a prints and advertising budget of around 30 crore. Add to this, the fee of Rohit Shetty and team, which is reportedly around 15 crore, and the fee of Shah Rukh Khan (who actually has a stake in the movie) and we have a phenomenal cost of around 130-odd crore staring us in the face. However, what would seem a daunting figure for others is currently looking like small change for the winning team of SRK and Rohit, who have actually rewritten box office figures for the first four days. Says trade consultant Amod Mehra, "After watching the promo, I had predicted that CE would touch the 100-crore mark in four days and that has happened." The producers claim that they touched the magic figure of 100 cr in three days and paid previews.

Highest Paid Preview Collections
Chennai Express: --------------------- 6.18 cr
3 Idiots: -------------------------------------- 2.75 cr
Kites: ---------------------------------------- 1.85 cr
Ghajini: -------------------------------------- 1.75 cr
Jism 2: -------------------------------------- 1.50 cr

Fastest 100 crore ever
Chennai Express: Four days plus paid previews
Ek Tha Tiger: Six days
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani: Seven days

First Day record
Ek Tha Tiger: 30.72 cr
Chennai Express: 29.37 cr
Agneepath: 21.86 cr
Bodyguard: 21.26 cr
YJHD: 19.38 cr

Second Day record
Chennai Express: 26.64 cr
RA.One: 22.89 cr
YJHD: 20.16 cr
Race 2: 18.60 cr
Bodyguard: 17.85 cr

Third Day record
Chennai Express: 29.21cr
YJHD: 22.44 cr
Dabangg 2: 22.33 cr
Rowdy Rathore: 18.22 cr
Dabangg: 18.11 cr

Fourth Day record
Ek Tha Tiger: 19 cr (Eid holiday in 2012)
YJHD: 12.64 cr
Chennai Express: 12.10 cr
Dabangg 2 : 11.61 cr
Dabangg: 10.68 cr