Dhurandhar continued its phenomenal box office run into its sixth weekend, collecting around Rs. 14.50 crore net despite fresh competition from The Raja Saab. What makes this staggering is that Dhurandhar, even in its sixth week, outperformed The Raja Saab's opening weekend in Hindi.
Dhurandhar sixth weekend: Rs. 14.5 crore net
The Raja Saab Hindi first weekend: Rs. 13.5 crore net
Ironically, these two films were originally expected to clash on December 5, with The Raja Saab being viewed as the stronger contender at the time. In hindsight, Prabhas narrowly escaped this clash or else it would have been a deeply embarrassing box office humiliation. Had the clash occurred, Dhurandhar would have eaten Raja Saab alive, and it would have massacred Prabhas film on all-India level.
The troubles for The Raja Saab only worsened on Sunday. The film crashed and wrapped up its three-day Indian opening weekend at just Rs. 114 crores gross after a Rs. 66 crore opening day. The downward trend was visible from Saturday itself and accelerated sharply on Sunday.
Overseas markets were even more disastrous. The film collected a shocking $225K on Sunday, which is less than 10% of its opening day overseas business. The total overseas weekend stood at only $3.40 million, which is around Rs. 30.50 crore. This took the worldwide opening weekend to roughly Rs. 145 crores gross.
Based on this trend, crossing Rs. 200 crores worldwide looks extremely difficult, if not impossible. The only lifeline is the Sankranti holiday period, which could provide some weekday support in Telugu states. Even then, recovery remains a long shot.
With costs exceeding Rs. 400 crores, Raja Saab needed a strong theatrical run, especially with shrinking OTT and satellite revenues. Despite a lucrative holiday window ahead, the damage has already been done. A poor opening followed by an abysmal trend has all but locked the film into a disastrous outcome.