Maidaan Box Office Day 1: Ajay Devgn Sees Weakest Opening Since ‘Runway 34’ Despite Positive Buzz

Maidaan’s box office debut fell short of Ajay Devgn’s expectations. Despite being released on the highly anticipated Eid holiday and receiving rave reviews, Maidaan struggled to attract audiences on its opening day. The film had a limited release for paid previews on Wednesday, where it earned Rs 2.6 crores, followed by a full-fledged release on April 11th, Eid, where it earned a mere Rs 4.50 crores, as estimated by Sacnilk. The total collection for the first day amounted to Rs 7.10 crores. This disappointing opening is particularly concerning for an Ajay Devgn film released on a holiday, but it aligns with the subdued pre-release buzz, despite the positive reviews.

The opening day figures of Maidaan, including the paid previews, are nearly 50 percent lower than Ajay’s recent releases. His supernatural thriller Shaitaan, released last month, opened to Rs 14.75 crores, while Drishyam 2 earned Rs 15.38 crores on its first day. Even his action-packed film Bholaa, released in March last year, garnered an opening of Rs 11.20 crores. The only film in Ajay’s recent filmography that had a worse opening than Maidaan was his 2022 Eid release Runway 34, which earned only Rs 3 crores. Now, Maidaan faces an uphill battle and must perform exceptionally well on Saturday and Sunday to demonstrate an upward trend at the box office and gauge audience acceptance.

Maidaan also faces competition at the box office from another Eid release, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, starring Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff. Despite being released on the major Eid holiday, the action film directed by Ali Abbas Zafar had a modest start, earning Rs 15.50 crores. Both films must sustain their momentum and achieve significant gains to have any chance of recovering, especially considering their substantial budgets.

While Bade Miyan Chote Miyan reportedly had a budget of around Rs 350 crores, trade experts have noted that Maidaan’s production costs, after years of delay, amount to Rs 250 crores. The underwhelming opening of both films presents a challenging task for them to come close to their reported budgets, at least for now.