Mardaani 3 had a fair opening day at the Indian box office, collecting Rs. 3.75 crore nett approx. That’s on par with Rs. 3.75 crore opening day of Mardaani 2 in 2019. Additionally, the film has earned USD 275K (Rs. 2.50 crore) approx overseas on its first day. The worldwide first day will come around Rs. 7 crore.
Adjusted for inflation, the opening day of Mardaani 2 would be around Rs. 5.50 crore nett today. However, considering that the theatrical market, especially for films in this zone, is weaker than it was in 2019, even matching it nominally is a fair result. This could have easily opened to Rs. 1.50-2 crore in today’s market. The opening is a plus for Rani Mukerji, who completed 30 years in the industry and is still working as a lead. This opening could have been tough for most of the younger actresses; for context, Jigra, starring Alia Bhatt, opened to Rs. 4.50 crore. There may be some franchise value in work, but lately we have franchise films with far bigger value open lesser than the original films.
That aside, Mardaani 3 isn’t an opening day film, and what matters more is how it grows over the weekend because that determines the potential legs for the film. Mardaani 2 had collected Rs. 18 crore nett over its opening weekend and went on to finish with Rs. 46 crore nett in its full run. The initial reception seems to be there, Mardaani 3 will be aiming to match that trajectory, and ideally improve upon it.
The film did best in the Mumbai circuit, followed by Mysore. The Northern circuits have traditionally not done well for the franchise, except Delhi-NCR, which was the case this time as well. West Bengal could have delivered stronger numbers, especially since it was a standout market for Mardaani 2 and is generally a strong territory for Rani Mukerji films.
One thing which has been going wrong with films lately is that the costs have increased a lot. A film which used to cost X a couple of years ago has increased to 2X, some even going 3X. Mardaani 3 has done well in this regard as the film has been made in controlled budget. While it does cost 2x of Mardaani 2, that is still quite manageable if the film gets the reception right, as non-theatrical recoveries are quite good as well.
