'Kabali' vs 'Sultan': Who won the first weekend box office battle?

Tamil superstar Rajinikanth’s crime drama Kabali broke opening records in India and internationally last weekend while the global gross of Salman Khan’s Sultan surpassed $80 million.

Written and directed by Pa. Ranjith, the Malaysian-set film easily won the weekend in India, beating Madaari, a Hindi thriller starring Irrfan Khan, Jimmy Sheirgill and Tushar Dalvi, and Justin Lin’s Star Trek Beyond.

Co-starring Radhika Apte, Dinesh Ravi, Kishore, John Vijay and Winston Chao, Kabali rang up 109.25 crore net ($16.4 million) in three days in India, an industry record for a Tamil title, trailing Salman Khan’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, which fetched 129.77 crore ($19.5 million) last year, but ahead of  Sultan’s 105.50 crore ($15.8 million) 3-day debut.

Released on 1,000 screens in northern markets by Fox Star, the V Creations production collected $4 million in three days, the second highest opening for any South Indian film after Baahulbali in that region.

Internationally, the film raked in $13 million, beating the previous high of $10.32 million posted by Yash Raj Films’ Dhoom 3 in 2013. North America generated $4.1 million for distributor CineGalaxy, the Gulf States posted $2.25 million, other Asian markets including Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines took a combined $4.25 million and the U.K. made about $400,000.

According to producer Kalaippuli S Thanu, the leaking of the film online shortly after the first screenings on Friday morning had no impact on ticket sales because the print was of such poor quality and Rajinikanth’s fans wanted to see the film in cinemas. The film, which cost 170 crore ($25.5 million), is already in profit as the producerrecouped more than 200 crore ($30 million) from pre-sales including the satellite rights for the Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam markets to Fox’s Star TV.3

Source :- Forbes