‘Bhaijaan’ North America theater average in the first week: $6,614; ‘Minions’: $26,905.
Two Indian films, Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan and SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali, have been raking in a considerable amount of money in the box office worldwide.
Bhaijaan, although opened with mixed reviews, has already earned $5.6 million in a mere 257 theaters in the United States alone. Worldwide the film earned an impressive $37.4 million in the first 10 days.
Baahubali, released on July 9, 2015, opened to critical acclaim, with a 9.3 rating on IMDb. It has earned $66 million in the first 17 days, making the movie India’s third highest grossing film of all time.
But how do these numbers stack up against that of some of this summer’s Hollywood blockbusters?
In international box office figures, neither even crack the top 12. However, surprisingly at the North American domestic box office, Bhaijaan is holding up, although only being in a mere 257 theaters. Sitting at the bottom of the top 12, the film earned $1.7 million domestically, with a theater average of $6,614.
With that average, had Bhaijaan opened in as many theaters as Minions, for example, it would have made, in theory, $26.9 million at the office. But there is a reason why Bhaijaan opened in only a limited number of theaters: its audience is primarily limited to South Asian diaspora and, therefore, it is being screened in only metropolitan areas where there are sizable South Asian populations.
In comparison, Minions had a theater average of $26,905 and $11,430 in its first and second weekends, making $115.7 million and $49.2 million respectively, both numbers being higher than Bhaijaan’s best weekend theater average. And Minions doesn’t even compare to earlier theater averages this year. Jurassic World and Avengers: Age of Ultron, for instance, both had theater averages of $40,000 plus in their opening weekends.