Gamechanger Day 1 BO in Karnataka: Ram Charan’s Sankranti release has single-digit start

Gamechanger has close to 1,000 shows in Bengaluru alone, but Day 2 bookings have seen a sharp fall following negative reports from Day 1

Ram Charan in Gamechanger

One of the major Sankranti releases of 2025, Telugu superstar Ram Charan’s Gamechanger released in theatres on January 10. The highly-anticipated Shankar directorial, though, opened not only to negative reviews, but also a major piracy, with what appears to be the censor copy being circulated widely even before the first show of the film was over.

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Below par opening for Gamechanger in Karnataka

Trade trackers estimate that the film made in the vicinity of Rs 50 cr to Rs 60 cr only on Day 1 from its all-India collections, but an official announcement has made a claim of Rs 186 crore world wide, which netizens have been disputing vociferously. In Karnataka, meanwhile, the film had an average outing, recording a single-digit Day 1 gross according to Karnataka Talkies. The trade tracker reckons that Gamechanger made Rs 4.5 crore in the state, with a measly Rs 10 lakh coming from the Kannada version, from 41 shows.

This figure is way lower than the Day 1 box office collections of several other A-list Telugu hero-led movies, with director Shankar’s Indian 2 said to be reason for the lower footfalls. Advance bookings for Day 2 showed a massive dip after the Day 1 response, it was claimed, with the film’s weekend prospects hinging on walk-ins. The film still has close to 1,000 shows in Bengaluru alone, but only a meagre percentage of them had respectable footfalls.

With Balakrishna’s Daaku Maharaj and Venkatesh’s Sankranthiki Vasthunam set to release on January 12 and January 14 respectively, Gamechanger has quite an uphill task to break-even in Karnataka. Currently, only about 20% has been recovered.

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On Day 2, the Malayalam thriller Rekhachithram had far more fast filling/sold out shows in Bengaluru, than Gamechanger. Trackers state that even Mufasa, which released way back in December, was faring better than the Ram Charan film. Netizens have dismissed the film as a washout in Karnataka, but a clearer picture will emerge after the weekend.

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