Taran Adarsh/ IndiaFM News Bureau Posted online: Tuesday, August 16, 2005 at 1522 hours IST
Mumbai, August 16: The verdict is loud and clear: Mangal Pandey - The Rising has stormed the overseas box-office charts and emerged a success story.
The historical has had an extensive release -- 63 screens in USA. and 73 screens in UK. -- clearly indicating that the market for a keenly anticipated Hindi film has grown in overseas over the years.
In the US, Mangal Pandey - The Rising is off to an electrifying start, crossing the half-a-million mark in its first three days itself, which is huge. Its opening is not as aggressive in UK, although the film has proved to be the biggest opener for Bollywood this year, besides featuring in the 'Top 10' charts this weekend. It has debuted at No. 10 position in UK. In its opening weekend, the film has collected £ 220,259 (approx. Rs. 1.73 crores) on 73 screens, with the per screen average working out to £ 3,017.
To sum up, the first 3 days gross of Mangal Pandey - The Rising from these two markets (US, UK) alone has crossed the magical figure of Rs. 4 crores.
And this is for all the cynics who felt that the opening weekend of Mangal Pandey - The Risingwouldn't be better than Lagaan: Aamir's latest movie has had a much bigger opening than Lagaan in these two markets, in terms of numbers. The opening weekend of Lagaan in U.S.A. was $ 285,368 and in U.K. £ 91,281.
Point to be noted is that the opening of Mangal Pandey - The Rising is still higher than the combined openings of the last three Aamir starrers in UK: Dil Chahta Hai (£ 57,600), Lagaan (£ 91,281) and Mela (£ 58,614).
Mangal Pandey - The Rising has also had a fabulous start in Australia, grossing excellent figures despite six more films opening in the same week (Wedding Crashers, Kicking and Screaming, Kung Fu Hustle, Millions, The Jacket and Look Both Ways). In USA and Australia both, the film has overtaken all new releases, in terms of screen average.
