Salman Khan’s Eid Record: Blockbuster Galore

Salman Khan returns to a festive weekend that he created and has dominated for the last 6 out of 7 years. The only exception was 2013, when the megastar didn’t have a release.

It all started with Prabhu Deva’s ‘Wanted’ back in 2009, when Salman was going through the worst phase of his career. The film didn’t do well at multiplexes, but brought back his audience in smaller towns. ‘Wanted’ was a massive hit at single-screens.

A year later, ‘Dabangg’ turned out to be a turning point in his career as the film not only broken the opening records of Aamir Khan’s acclaimed film ‘3 Idiots’, but also went on to be one of the most loved Salman Khan films. It was also the first Salman film in a long time to do well at multiplexes.

Since then, Salman has been unstoppable, at single-screens, multiplexes, cities, towns, villages, everywhere! ‘Bodyguard’ smashed the opening records of ‘Dabangg’ by a huge margin and was the first film to collect Rs 20 crore on a single day.

Then came ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, which trounced the opening day record of all previous films and became the first film to collect Rs 30 crore or more on a single day.

The actor didn’t have a release in 2013, he returned with ‘Kick’ in 2014 with a debutant director and not so popular heroine (back then) – the film was a blockbuster.

2015 was witness to ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, a film that opened well at the box office and went on to become the 2nd highest grosser of all time and only the 2nd film to collect more than 300 crore at the domestic box office. The film also became Salman’s first major success in the overseas market during this decade. It even managed to beat the ‘first phase release’ record of ‘PK’.

With his latest release ‘Sultan’, Salman will be looking to continue his unmatched record of Eid blockbusters and also trying to achieve a few records that have eluded him in the past – which is, the highest grosser of all time, a record that he’s come very close to, but failed to beat (Ek Tha Tiger and Bajrangi Bhaijaan).

Interestingly, all his Eid films have outgrossed the collections of his previous releases during the same weekend. If Sultan has to continue the trend, then it has to collect more than Bajrangi Bhaijaan last year.

Movie	Screens	Opening Day	Lifetime	Verdict
Wanted (2009)	1400	5.2 cr	61 cr	Super Hit
Dabangg (2010)	1900	15.1 cr*	143 cr	All Time Blockbuster
Bodyguard (2011)	2800	21.4 cr*	145 cr	Blockbuster
Ek Tha Tiger (2012)	3400	32.9 cr*	199 cr	Blockbuster
Chennai Express (2013)	3600	33.1 cr*	227 cr	All Time Blockbuster
Kick (2014)	4000	26.5 cr	233 cr	Blockbuster
Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)	4100	27.25 cr	321 cr	All Time Blockbuster
Sultan (2016)	4400	36.54 cr*	301 cr	All Time Blockbuster