Selfiee to get lowest opening for Akshay Kumar since 2013? Trade experts predict ₹4-5 crore on day one

Selfiee is directed by Raj Mehta and is an official Hindi remake of the Malayalam film Driving License. The original film featured Prithviraj and Suraj Venjaramoodu in the lead roles. For an Akshay Kumar film, Selfiee is getting a limited release with just 1200 screens across the country.

Producer and film business analyst Girish Johar predicted a ₹4-5 crore opening for the film and told Hindustan Times that if the film is good enough, word-of-mouth may help it pick up in the second half of the opening day. “Given Akshay and Emraan’s fan following, and the fact that Pathaan has been running for a while now, the film should have a decent start. Also, Shehzada and Antman and the Wasp Quantumania have had mixed reactions, so it is pretty much open for Selfiee right now. I hope the audience accepts the content,” he said.

Girish also said that if the audience finds the film good, the film will get better over the weekend, but refused to put a number for the weekend because “the dynamics at play for box office are volatile”.

Trade expert Atul Mohan said, “The buzz is very low, it is almost non-existent and the advance bookings have also not been too good. The one good thing is that they have kept the ticket prices pretty low – the first-day shows are mostly priced at ₹120-140. Their plan is to increase the rates over the weekend, roughly 20% per day. The screens are also fewer, so I expect a ₹4-5 crore day-one collection. Also, if all works well, Selfiee may wrap the weekend at ₹15 crore or so.” He added that if the movie fails to get decent reviews and word-of-mouth, it may even end up below ₹15 crore for a weekend collection.

Atul also said, “If things work well, in favour of the film then it may even make it to ₹20 crore for the three-day collections. But, given the limited release, I think even the makers are not too hopeful. If they felt the film was genuinely good, they would have gone for an aggressive, wider release. Somewhere, they must have realised this is the potential of the film.”

Expressing hopes for the film to work better, Atul said, “Let us hope it works. The last film (Shehzada) did not work well and if this one does not either, people will start talking about how something is not right with Bollywood. It is also really important for the lead actors that the film works.”

Meanwhile, film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi predicted Selfiee may get a ₹6-7 crore opening on the first day. “The film has two mass stars (Akshay and Emraan) but the premise and story of Selfiee is very niche. It is not the kind that is expected to open with ballistic collections, it will hopefully grow with the word-of-mouth and reviews.”

Expressing hopes that the film grows with word-of-mouth and reviews, Akshaye added, “The weekend should be anything around ₹25-30, if everything works in favour.”

With opening collections of ₹9 and ₹10 crore respectively, Raksha Bandhan and Samrat Prithviraj (released last year) proved to be the lowest opening films for Akshay Kumar over the past decade.