Baahubali 2: The Conclusion‘s opening weekend was absolutely massive, finishing in third place in the overall North American box office for the weekend of April 28-30, 2017. According to Gitesh Pandya: “No Indian film has ever opened this high on the U.S. box office chart before.” Baahubali 2‘s final weekend tally supplied to Bollywood Hungama by Rentrak was $10,392,055 from 431 theaters for an average of $24,111 per theater. Pandya noted that the 45 IMAX screens showing Baahubali 2 contributed $1.8 million to the total with average earnings of $40,000 per screen! Pandya tweeted that 66% of earnings came from the Telugu version of the movie, 22% from the Hindi version, and 13% from the Tamil version.
The small caveat to all the celebrations is that ticket prices for Baahubali 2 are higher than those charged for Hindi films in the United States in Canada, ranging from approximately $15-40, depending on language, date, and format (versus an estimated average ticket price of just under $9 in North America in 2017). With those higher ticket prices, Sumit Chadha notes on Twitter that Baahubali 2 need only sell a quarter of the number of tickets to surpass Dangal — which earned $12.3 million total here — as the highest earning Indian movie in North America.
That said, Baahubali 2 has set a new benchmark for what an Indian film can achieve under the right circumstances — and with proper promotion. Just getting Baahubali 2 into IMAX theaters created extra hype, making it seem like a must-see movie. Let’s see what lessons Indian studios and international distributors learn from Baahubali‘s success.
Other Hindi movies still in North American theaters:
- Noor: Week 2; $7,202 from 20 theaters; $360 average; $77,910 total
- Begum Jaan: Week 3; $4,609 from seven theaters; $658 average; $122,324 total
- Naam Shabana: Week 5; $244 from four theaters; $61 average; $262,698 total
Sources: Box Office Mojo, Gitesh Pandya, and Rentrak, via Bollywood Hungama