The romantic comedy/family drama 2 States produced the best opening weekend for a Hindi film in North America in 2014. During the weekend of April 18-20, it earned $1,026,353 from 131 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. Its per-screen average of $7,835 is the year’s second highest, behind the opening weekend of The Lunchbox.

Since the release of Queen on March 7, the North American box office has been hostile territory for newly released Hindi films. The mean opening weekend per-screen average for Hindi films (besides Queen) released between March 7 and April 11 was just $1,085. Between January 10 and February 28 (excepting the anomalously high opening weekend average of The Lunchbox), the mean per-screen average was $3,469.

Queen averaged $4,154 in its debut weekend and went on to dominate in both per-screen average and gross earnings for the next four weeks. It remains to be seen if 2 States heralds a revitalization of audience interest in new Bollywood fare, or if it will follow Queen‘s path and dominate the box office until the next big thing comes along (probably Akshay Kumar’s Holiday on June 6).

In its seventh week of release, Queen continued to beat the mean opening weekend per-screen average of new movies released from March 7 to April 11. It earned $13,291 from nine theaters for an average of $1,477. Its total North American earnings stand at $1,408,129.

The Lunchbox continued its impressive run as it expanded into 156 North American theaters. It earned $343,242 over the weekend, bringing its total to $2,135,144.

In its second weekend in theaters, Bhoothnath Returns earned $23,956 from twenty-three screens, bringing its total to $139,032.

Main Tera Hero closed out its third weekend by earning $5,344 from eleven screens. Its total earnings stand at $274,673.

Source: Bollywood Hungama