News: My Name Is Khan Breaks US & UK Box Office Records

Grossing an estimated $1.86 million at the box office in its first weekend, Shah Rukh Khan starrer “My Name Is Khan” has broken the record for the largest opening weekend ever for a Hindi film in North America.

The Fox Searchlight release directed by Karan Johar averaged $15,500 from 120 theatres across the United States and Canada over Feb 12-14 weekend. The previous record was held by Shah Rukh’s musical extravaganza “Om Shanti Om” which grossed $1.76 million from 114 theatres when it was released over the Diwali holiday weekend in 2007.

“My Name Is Khan” opened Friday with $444,000, rose 65 percent to $734,000 Saturday, and is estimated to dip 7 percent to $682,000 on Sunday, Valentine’s Day.

Monday’s Presidents’ Day holiday in the US will lead to a four-day debut of more than $2 million. MNIK also generated the highest per-theatre average of any film in the Top 20 over the weekend.

In the UK, My Name is Khan became the biggest ever opening Bollywood film at the UK box office, grossing £936,000 in its 4 day opening weekend. Already the widest Bollywood release, being shown on 129 screens at 91 sites across the country, the film surpasses the previous record of £749,000 set by KABHI ALVIDA NA KEHNA which also starred Shah Rukh Khan and was also directed by Karan Johar.
 
Director of Sales at Twentieth Century Fox, Andrew Turner, said:

“Expanding our Distribution network into the Bollywood arena has been a challenging and exciting experience. We are very fortunate to be working alongside the best possible talent associated with Bollywood. Our challenge at Fox was to recognise the incredible achievements of Karan Johar’s previous work, all of which also starred Shah Rukh Khan, whilst bringing the expertise, knowledge and resources of Fox to the table.

A huge personal thanks must go out to UK Exhibition, especially Cineworld Cinemas whose contribution for Bollywood films is consistently over 50%, for supporting us above and beyond and helping us reach our wildest ambitions of releasing on 91 sites, the widest ever Bollywood release. We are very proud to be associated with this extraordinary film and really could not have hoped for a better start with our entry into the Bollywood market place.”