Lokah Box Office Collection Day 19: Will his best friend’s daughter dethrone Mohanlal at the box office? Film circles in Kerala are currently abuzz with this question, as director Dominic Arun’s Kalyani Priyadarshan-led film Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra is gearing up to cross the Rs 250 crore mark in worldwide grosses, becoming only the second-ever Malayalam film to achieve this milestone. At the same time, the movie is just a few crores shy of director-actor Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Mohanlal-starrer L2: Empuraan’s lifetime theatrical collection. Going by the current trend, Lokah shows all signs of emerging as the highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time in the coming days.
On September 15, which marked the 19th day since the movie’s release and its third Monday in theatres, Lokah recorded an India nett collection of Rs 2.65 crore, taking its total domestic earnings to Rs 122.05 crore, according to early estimates by industry tracker Sacnilk. However, this marked a 62.14 per cent dip in its daily collection compared to Sunday’s Rs 7 crore. The film’s worldwide gross currently stands at Rs 249 crore.
During the day, Lokah registered an overall occupancy of 32.28 per cent in the Malayalam market. Even though the morning shows commenced with an occupancy rate of just 15.34 per cent, the figure improved exponentially as the day unfolded, climbing to 26.3 per cent during afternoon shows, jumping to 40.58 per cent in the evening, and peaking at 46.91 per cent during night screenings.
While the Malayalam and Tamil editions of the movie, starring ace filmmaker Priyadarshan’s daughter Kalyani and actor Naslen in the lead roles, raked in Rs 2.2 crore and Rs 25 lakh, respectively, the Telugu and Hindi versions minted Rs 10 lakh each on Monday. Lokah has also managed to surpass director Tharun Moorthy’s Mohanlal-starrer Thudarum (Rs 121.2 crore) in domestic collection, after outdoing it (Rs 234.5 crore) in the global market a few days ago. Although the superhero film has outshone Chidambaram’s Manjummel Boys in worldwide collection (Rs 240.5 crore), it is still trailing behind the survival thriller in terms of India nett collection (Rs 141.61 crore).
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Despite Lokah’s daily earnings dipping below these blockbusters — Manjummel Boys and Thudarum had earned Rs 3.1 crore and Rs 2.9 crore, respectively, on their corresponding third Mondays — it has been demonstrating an upper hand in the overseas market, which could help it surpass Empuraan’s worldwide collection of Rs 265.5 crore to become the highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time.
In contrast to Thudarum’s Rs 93.8 crore and Manjummel Boys’ Rs 73.4 crore, Lokah has already minted Rs 109.35 crore in the overseas market. Even Empuraan, whose India nett collection had dipped to as low as Rs 47 lakh on its third Monday, survived and emerged as an industry hit due to its performance in terrains outside India. When it completed its theatrical run, the Mohanlal-starrer’s overseas collection stood at Rs 142.25 crore.
