2018’s two Indian Independence Day releases turned in middling performances in their first weekend at the North American box office. Leading the way was Gold, which opened in about five times as many theaters as Satyameva Jayate and made about five times as much money. From August 17-19, 2018, Gold earned $444,267 from 190 theaters ($2,338 average), according to Bollywood Hungama. Including earnings from August 15-16, Gold‘s total after five days stood at $578,617. This is down a bit from the performance of star Akshay Kumar’s 2017 Independence Day release — Toilet: Ek Prem Katha — which earned $670,447 in its opening weekend in North America.
Satyameva Jayate earned $84,772 from 39 theaters ($2,174 average), for a 5-day total of $111,632.
Most of the attention over the weekend went to the Telugu movie Geetha Govindam, which made $760,765 from 161 theaters ($4,725 average), bringing its 5-day total to $1,492,256. The rest of the Hindi films still showing in US and Canadian theaters are clearly on their way out:
- Vishwaroop 2: Week 2; $12,885 from 32 theaters; $403 average; $42,834 total
- Karwaan: Week 3; $3,601 from four theaters; $900 average; $177,859 total
- Mulk: Week 3; $2,202 from five theaters; $440 average; $112,644 total
- Fanney Khan: Week 3; $1,085 from five theaters; $217 average; $264,808 total
- Sanju: Week 8; $339 from two theaters; $170 average; $7,873,779 total
- Dhadak: Week 5; $172 from three theaters; $57 average; $853,878 total
Sources: 143 Cinema and Bollywood Hungama