Entertainment
oi-Prakash KL
Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon and Rashmika Mandanna’s much-awaited romantic drama Cocktail 2 has made a promising start at the box office despite receiving mixed reviews from critics and audiences. Released on Friday amid considerable buzz, the film managed to attract moviegoers across key urban centres and delivered a solid opening day performance.
Cocktail 2 – 1st Day Box Office Collection
According to early trade estimates from Sacnilk, Cocktail 2 earned ₹13.50 crore nett in India on its first day. The film generated a gross collection of ₹16.20 crore domestically, while overseas markets contributed an additional ₹4 crore. This pushed the movie’s worldwide gross collection to ₹20.20 crore on its opening day.
The romantic drama Cocktail 2, starring Shahid Kapoor and Kriti Sanon, debuted strongly with a worldwide gross collection of ₹20.20 crore on its first day, earning ₹13.50 crore nett in India despite mixed reviews. The film saw increasing occupancy throughout the day, peaking during night shows.
The Day 1 performance places the film among the stronger Bollywood openers of the year, particularly in the romance-drama genre. Industry observers believe the film’s star-studded cast, aggressive promotional campaign and nostalgia associated with the original Cocktail franchise played a significant role in drawing audiences to cinemas.
The film was screened across 10,835 shows nationwide and recorded an overall occupancy of 21 per cent. However, occupancy trends throughout the day revealed a steady rise in audience turnout. Morning shows began on a relatively slow note with occupancy at 11.08 per cent. Collections picked up during the afternoon and evening shows, registering occupancies of 21.38 per cent and 23.69 per cent respectively.
The strongest response came during the night shows, which recorded an impressive 37.62 per cent occupancy. The sharp increase indicates positive walk-in traffic and suggests that word-of-mouth may have helped improve footfalls as the day progressed.
Among major cities, Hyderabad emerged as one of the best-performing markets for the film. The city registered an overall occupancy of 34 per cent, while night shows touched a remarkable 57 per cent. Bengaluru also delivered a strong performance with 30.8 per cent overall occupancy and nearly 49 per cent occupancy during late-night screenings.
Mumbai, one of the most crucial markets for Hindi cinema, recorded 25.3 per cent occupancy across 749 shows. Pune matched Mumbai’s performance with the same overall occupancy figure and a strong 44 per cent turnout during night shows.
The National Capital Region (NCR), which hosted the highest number of screenings at 1,227 shows, registered a moderate occupancy of 20 per cent. Ahmedabad reported 18 per cent occupancy, while Kolkata and Lucknow witnessed comparatively lower audience turnout at 16.8 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.
One of the biggest surprises came from Chennai. Although the city had only 49 shows, Cocktail 2 recorded an impressive overall occupancy of 58.7 per cent, including a massive 73 per cent occupancy during night screenings. This suggests growing interest in the film beyond traditional Hindi-speaking markets.
The coming weekend will be crucial for Cocktail 2. Trade analysts expect a significant jump in collections on Saturday and Sunday if positive audience feedback continues. With a worldwide opening exceeding ₹20 crore and strong evening and night show trends, the film has laid a solid foundation for what could be a successful theatrical run.
The next two days will determine whether Cocktail 2 can translate its promising opening into a sustained box-office success.
