Box Office: Salman’s Kick A Gold-spinner, Delivers Thrills Galore

Get Your Kick This Eid, yells the movie poster and sure enough, it has never been this good for a Bollywood release in 2014. Superstar Salman Khan is back with Kick, his second venture of the current year, and the action-drama raced past his earlier outing Jai Ho (opening weekend collection Rs 58.50 crore at home). Released on July 25, the Salman Khan-Jacqueline Fernandez-starrer netted a mammoth Rs 83.83 crore at the domestic box office in the first three days (trade figure stood at Rs 82.01 crore) and is expected to hit the Rs 100 crore mark on Day 5 (July 29) at home.

“Kick has a SPECTACULAR weekend. Fri 26.50 cr, Sat 27.15 cr, Sun 30.18 cr. Total: Rs 83.83 cr nett. India biz. REMARKABLE,” tweeted film critic and analyst Taran Adarsh. This is the highest opening day collection in 2014, but Kick failed to beat the debut day records of Aamir Khan’s Dhoom 3 (Rs 36 crore), Shah Rukh’s Chennai Express (Rs 33.10 crore) and Salman’s own Ek Tha Tiger (Rs 32.92 crore). Neither could it beat Dhoom 3’s record of entering the Rs 100 crore club in just three days. Interestingly, Salman’s Ek Tha Tiger entered the 100 crore club in the first weekend.

Although first Monday collections saw a huge 50% drop in earnings (compared to Sunday) at the domestic box office, the movie collected around Rs 13.5 crore as per industry estimates, taking Kick’s four-day total to Rs 97.3 crore (approx.). The flick has also done some good business overseas and grossed around Rs 22 crore at the end of Day 4. “Kick is excellent in USA-Canada and has performed well elsewhere. The business will get a further boost once the Eid festivities begin,” said Adarsh in another tweet.

With Kick hitting the 100 crore mark globally, Salman now has seven 100 crore grossers to his credit. The earlier six include Ek Tha Tiger, Bodyguard, Dabangg and Dabangg2, Ready and Jai Ho. As for the opening weekend, Kick is the fourth highest grosser of all time – after Dhoom 3 (Rs 107 crore), Chennai Express (100.35 crore) and Ek Tha Tiger (Rs 116.05 crore). Although Ra.One (Rs 91.10 crore) and Bodyguard (Rs 86.10 crore) had earned more than Kick, both movies had a 5-day weekend.



Kick is the directorial debut of Sajid Nadiadwala, known for producing big hits like Housefull, Heropanti, 2 States and Highway. This movie, too, has been produced by Nadiadwala and is marketed and distributed by UTV Motion Pictures, a part of the Disney Company in India. Kick hit more than 5,000 screens in India and 42 other countries, and had a whopping budget of Rs 125 crore. For the uninitiated, this one is a remake of the 2009 Telugu action comedy Kick, directed by Surender Reddy. Chetan Bhagat has co-written the script for the Hindi version.

Coming back to the movie itself, it is a typical masala entertainer where everything else departs and ‘Salmania’ takes over. Here’s a blockbuster screening the superb exploits and high voltage action of a Robin Hood-like superhero who is forever seeking adrenaline rush. Devil, aka Devil Lal Singh (Salman Khan), is initially drawn to Shaina (Jacqueline Fernandez), a psychiatrist living in Poland, as she manages to give him enough kick on the love front. The chemistry between the two is quite enjoyable while you have a super cop in Himanshu (Randeep Hooda), trying to decode some challenging robberies masterminded by Devil (reminds you of Dhoom 3?), and a creepy villain in Shiv Gazra (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). The rest is usual Bollywood histrionics – right from accident to memory loss to melodrama and finally, a predictable climax without an ounce of surprise. But you would better forget the logic and the coherence part. The best thing that happened to this movie is Salman Khan (and the supporting cast) who sizzled all the way with devilish humour, sleek action and smooth romance.

Images: Indiatimes