Haiwaan Box Office Collection Day 1

So here’s the deal with Haiwaan on its opening day, the Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan reunion film everyone was talking about didn’t quite live up to the buzz at the ticket counters. Let’s break down the numbers. The film ended Day 1 with a collection of around ₹1.85 crore net in India.

To put that in perspective, advance bookings had already signaled trouble only about 44,000 tickets were sold before release, bringing in roughly ₹1.03 crore in gross pre-sales. Not exactly the kind of pre-release momentum you’d expect from two big stars sharing screen space for the first time since Tashan back in 2008.

The occupancy story is where things really show the struggle. Morning shows opened at just 6% occupancy across the country pretty low, though it did edge out recent openers like Mardaani 3 and Pati Patni Aur Woh Do, which had managed 5% each.

As the day went on, footfalls picked up a bit, with total ticket sales for the day landing somewhere around 60,000-64,000 depending on which tracker you check. On the show-count front, Haiwaan hit screens with about 7,400 shows nationwide.

That’s a decent spread, but it wasn’t the widest release of the week. The film had to fight for screen space against Mirzapur: The Movie and Hanuman Ansh, both of which were also competing for audiences.

Add to that some mixed reviews right out of the gate folks are pointing to a shaky screenplay, forgettable music, and a climax that doesn’t quite land and you’ve got a film that’s off to a slow start despite the star power and the emotional pull of being late actor Asrani’s final screen appearance.

Bottom line: with numbers this soft on Day 1, the real test for Haiwaan is the weekend. It’ll need a solid jump in occupancy and collections over Saturday and Sunday to turn this opening around.