Akshay’s Welcome outstripps competition With the spectacular opening of Welcome, Akshay claims his position in ‘top 2′ along with SRK who in turn is in all praise for Akshay.
With a historic opening, not only has the Indian Films-Studio 18 mega release, Welcome outstripped competition and emerged the final winner at the box-office, but the numbers in the overseas have also surpassed those of all erstwhile solo Akshay Kumar titles, creating a new record for the superstar!
In the UK, the preview and opening weekend gross was a smashing £370,000 (approx) from 40 locations.
In the UAE, just the 5-day business of Welcome was nearly as much as the lifetime gross of Kumar’s earlier hits. The business to date is AED 1.8 million from 29 locations.
In the US, the first two days grossed $100,000 only from the mainstream theatres (independents excluded), extremely impressive considering the biggest grosses will start from December 26. In almost every mainstream location, Welcome out-grossed even the major Hollywood openers like Charlie Wilson’s War, P.S. I Love You and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
Remarks Akshay Kumar of breaking his record, “Three previous hits and now Welcome creating records, 2007 has been a year of box-office fortune! I’m glad that I’m ending 2007 on a high (literally) with Welcome, my highest overseas opener.”
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That's a fact. In American cinema you often see even the most obscure character actor getting (literally) getting the role ...
Rahguvaran always appeared a bit psychotic to me! When he played the villain he was fine (looked truly deranged in ...
Satyam,
No matter what you pick, one would always end up with 9! 
Comment by Nitesh on 24 December 2007:
UTV must be repenting now…if they had held back Welcome and distributed themselves, they would have earned handsome.
For Studio 18, Welcome is thier biggest hit and helps them to arrive in a big way.
Nana and Anil must be proud to get the biggest opening of their career.
Welcome is going to gross over 32 Cr in India alone. It is huge in multiplex as well as single theatres.
Wtih christmas and New Year coming, things look record breaking for welcome.
Comment by Nitesh on 24 December 2007:
For those who used to say that Akshay’s films do not open as big as other stars need to rethink on their strategy to discount Akshay’s success.
The king has arrived and this time he is here to say and get stronget with each passing film.
Comment by Nitesh on 24 December 2007:
***The king has arrived and this time he is here to stay and get stronger with each passing film***
2008 will be phenomenal for Akshay…
Comment by Nitesh on 24 December 2007:
***Welcome is going to gross over 32 Cr in India alone in its week 1. It is huge in multiplex as well as single theatres.
***
Comment by Nitesh on 24 December 2007:
‘Welcome out-grossed even the major Hollywood openers like Charlie Wilson’s War, P.S. I Love You and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.’
After OSO we were talking about which film in 2008 will repeat its overseas success…
never knew that in 2007 end and so soon, another film will repeat its overseas performance in the opening weekend.
Comment by Rocky on 24 December 2007:
Yeh Ishq hai, Baithe Bithaye, Jannat Dikhaye Haan
Oh Rama…
Mere jaise lakho mile honge tujhko Akki, mujhe to mila tuu hi…
Just kidding Nitesh, I am just too engrossed in JWM songs.
Comment by som on 24 December 2007:
“never knew that in 2007 end and so soon, another film will repeat its overseas performance in the opening weekend.’”
Nitesh: the opening weekend has been very impressive for Welcome, but OSO was infact a monster so to speak.it has not outgrossed OSO in UK and UAE, dont think it will outgross the approx.$1700,000 record set in US too.
Comment by Pranav on 24 December 2007:
Nitesh: A very good opening does not take away the fact that the movie is a absolute disaster!
Comment by Tango on 24 December 2007:
Pranav- “Nitesh: A very good opening does not take away the fact that the movie is a absolute disaster!”
It is not a good opening it is EXTRAORDINARY in Bombay and FANTASTIC everywhere.
And how is it an absolute disaster?
Akshay has deservadly given his middle finger to the critics.
Comment by Pranav on 24 December 2007:
Tango: By disaster I meant the product is absolutely horrible even though its faring well at the box office.
Comment by Nitesh on 24 December 2007:
There are many reviewers who have liked Welcome.
However, more than the movie, it is Akshay Kumar who is in news. He has towered over the movie’s performance itself.
It shows it has to do with an average content of the movie because now all the publicity is driven by Akshay to take the boat towards the shore.
Comment by Pranav on 24 December 2007:
Just to make one point clear..i have nothing against Akki. He throughly deserves all the success he is getting and is a self made star. My grouse is against the movie Welcome.
Comment by Nitesh on 24 December 2007:
Agree Pranav…
This year has seen lots of average movies (content wise) becoming superhits.
I too will like to see the overall content of Hindi film be more than what it is currently.
I have not seen welcome but going by the mixed response, it looks to be better than Heyy Babyy which i enjoyed as it was different from other comic features.
However will love to see more of Munnabhai kinda comedies. but then we have only one raj kumar hirani and he seems to be confused on whom he wants to cast next. Last i read was that he had approached Aamir.
Other good directors like SLB, Ashutosh Gowarikar, etc does not seem to have tried making a good sensible comedies. They are concentrating more on providing meaningful cinema instead of entertaining cinema like munnabhai.
Unless these directors come and raise the bar of comedy films, we will continue to see no-brainer comedies. I beleive that comedy can be used more effectively to make meaningful cinema.
Unfortunately Shaad Ali’s Jhoom Barabar Jhoom failed otherwise we could have seen better entertaining movies.
For those who have stopped liking no-brainer comedy because of Akshay Kumar…message for them is that he is ensuring more and more people get to see this. Imagine how much his films will score if he were to come in meaningful comedies (-> extraordinary opening + sustained collection over the week = 90 Cr+)
Comment by Tango on 24 December 2007:
Pranav- “Tango: By disaster I meant the product is absolutely horrible even though its faring well at the box office.”
Thanks for clarifying. I have never questioned personal anyones likes and dislikes.
Comment by Julie on 25 December 2007:
“By disaster I meant the product is absolutely horrible even though its faring well at the box office.”
Pranav, ultimately likes and dislikes for a product are very subjective, but I have maintained that a handful of opinion at NG does not represent the likes and dislikes of the masses. There are a lot of average and sub average products (according to our personal opinion) that click at the BO and good products don’t. This is all about star power. Today Akshay Kumar is having the last laugh at the BO. This just goes to show how big he is now in the BO terms. I am glad that he has a very good line up of different products now in the coming years which will further cement his position as a superstar.
Comment by Nitesh on 25 December 2007:
‘ I have maintained that a handful of opinion at NG does not represent the likes and dislikes of the masses’
Julie..an excellent observation.
However, when it comes to the movie of their fav star, their perception shifts remarkably.
‘Today Akshay Kumar is having the last laugh at the BO. This just goes to show how big he is now in the BO terms.’
This feeling is yet to sink in with many on NG. It may not change also as liking in all the cases are personal.
However, i get surprised when even after the non-performance/absence of their fav actors, most on NG still like their star to remain unaffected. They come up with theories to suit their star without realising/accepting the other side of the hard-hitting story.
Pingback by Akshay’s Welcome outstripps competition — Clocks and Watches Blog on 4 June 2008:
[...] but the numbers in the overseas have also surpassed those of all erstwhile solo Aks source: Akshays Welcome outstripps competition, Naachgaana.com 2.0 [...]