Shehzada, Kartik Aaryan’s first production, starring Kartik and Kriti Sanon, a remake of the extremely successful Telugu movie Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, is off to a slow start. Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, which has been playing in cinemas for more than three weeks, and Marvel’s newest offering, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, presented the movie with fierce competition on its opening day.
The audience’s reaction to Rohit Dhawan’s film Shehzada has been mixed. Their first-day revenue is reportedly only Rs 7 crore. It falls far short of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Kartik’s strongest opening of his career. The movie only had a 14.05 percent occupancy rate. According to Box Office India, the incentive of the buy-one-get-one-free ticket helped the movie attain this figure.
Taran Adarsh, trade analyst tweeted, “#Shehzada disappoints on Day 1, despite buy-one-get-one-free offer… National chains ordinary, mass circuits dull… #MahaShivratri holiday on Day 2 may improve biz, but needs bigger jumps for a respectable weekend total… Fri ₹ 6 cr [+/-]. #India biz.”
#Shehzada disappoints on Day 1, despite buy-one-get-one-free offer… National chains ordinary, mass circuits dull… #MahaShivratri holiday on Day 2 may improve biz, but needs bigger jumps for a respectable weekend total… Fri ₹ 6 cr [+/-]. #India biz. pic.twitter.com/xBc2aDKWIR
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) February 18, 2023
Pathaan and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, its rivals at the box office, took in Rs 2.50 crore and Rs 9 crore, respectively. Even before Shehzada’s release, industry insiders expressed concern about the movie’s box office performance because they believed that the producers “made a mistake” by delaying the film’s release by a week to avoid the chaos that Pathaan was causing at the box office. If the movie had been released on February 10, Taran Adarsh said, it would have had a more successful solo run and avoided competing with the MCU feature.