'Kick' highest holiday grosser in Pakistan

Karachi: Salman Khan starrer 'Kick', which was released on Eid, has become the highest holiday grosser in Pakistan with an estimated earnings of Rs 20.8 million.

Muhammad Ashraf, manager of the little known Ghalib cinema in Karachi's Korangi area, says they had to arrange for morning shows to meet the demand.

"We have not received such figures for any film even during the heydays of Pakistani films. On a average we are earning Rs 65 to 70,000 per show for Salman Khan's new blockbuster 'Kick'," he said. For Ashraf the figures are historic since the Ghalib cinema has one screen and not very comfortable seating arrangements.

"Despite that people have thronged in and all shows since Eid have been full. We have even run special morning shows to meet the demand," he added. It has been a blessing for the single screen owners as well, thanks to the record breaking opening collection of the movie.

"Normally the multiplexes and cineplexes do great business because they have maximum number of shows in a day and due to the high ticket fares but this time we are getting in great reports from even the single screen cinemas," well known exhibitor and distributor, Nadeem Mandviwalla told PTI. He said 'Kick' was released across 58 screens on Eid in Karachi.

Even at the Bambino cinema in the main commercial Saddar area, 'Kick' has been generating an average of 200,000 rupees per show which according to its owner, Adeel Siddiqui is the best figure for any film released on Pakistani screens. "We generated ticket sales of around 200,000 rupees for the matinee show on Eid day and all subsequent shows have been full. People are loving Salman and Kick," said Adeel.

Adeel had to renovate the Bambino cinema, one of the oldest cinemas in Karachi, after rioters burnt and vandalised it some years back during protests against a anti-Islamic film on Youtube. "Kick has broken all previous records of opening collections at our cinema and we need such revenue generation to make some profit," he added. Overall, 'Kick' has set the record for the highest opening day collection in Karachi as it generated 20.8 million rupees in ticket sales on the day of Eid.

In Pakistan, the record for the biggest box office collections on the first day and first week were held by the Aamir Khan starrer 'Dhoom 3' which raked in a grand total of 240 million rupees while the Shaan starrer-Pakistani blockbuster 'Waar' had a net collection of 230 million rupees. Film analysts say another reason for the tremendous success of 'Kick' is also due to the flat opening by Pakistani film 'Sultanat' which was expected to do good business.

"Sultanat has been a major let down and on Eid day itself they were people walking out midway through the movie" a well known film critic said. Ashraf at Ghalib cinema said he felt nostalgia seeing the success of 'Kick'. "Such rush was only seen during the days when quality Pakistani films were made and Waheed Murad and Muhammad Ali ruled the industry," he recalled.