Vikrant Rona day 1 predictions peg its Karnataka box-office revenue between 10-20 crore

The film’s non-festival release prevents the makers from hiking ticket rates

Sudeep in a still from Vikrant Rona

Kannada superstar Kiccha Sudeep’s Vikrant Rona is only days away and his fans have already started speculating about the money it will make at the box office in Karnataka on day 1. The predictions range between Rs 10 crore and Rs 20 crore, on July 28, Thursday. While hardcore fans are wishing for a much bigger opening for Sudeep’s 3D fantasy action thriller, the team is limited by certain factors in the state.

For starters, Karnataka has less than700 single-screen theatres and close to 300 multiplexes, of which Ranbir Kapoor’s Shamshera was expected to take up a sizeable share. However, the film’s poor opening may just prove beneficial for Vikrant Rona on July 28, and exhibitors may favour Sudeep’s film. However, this will also be contingent on the fact that there are biggies like Ek Villain Returns (hindi), Ramarao on Duty (Telugu) and The Legend (Tamil) releasing on July 29.

Ek Villain Returns has Arjun Kapoor, John Abraham, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria in the lead, while Ramarao on Duty is a Ravi Teja film. Traditionally, Karnataka has had a history of allotting good number of screens to Tamil and Telugu biggies, especially in border districts, so quite a few screens will be reserved for Ravi Teja’s film.

And if the limitations on screens wasn’t dampener enough, team Vikrant Rona is also in no position to indiscriminately hike ticket rates, as it is it not a festival release, unlike KGF: Chapter 2, which was a Tamil New Year/Easter long-weekend release and sold tickets priced as high as Rs 5,000 on day 1.

In a recent interaction with an online news portal, producer Manjunath Gowda, who is also handling the Karnataka region distribution of the film, said that the film had confirmed three-and-half thousand screens, including in the overseas market) so far and that they were looking at increasing this number in the days to come.

Vikrant Rona has tough competition in most of the other regions – this week’s Malayalam releases Mahaveeryar and Malayankunju are going strong and Suresh Gopi’s Paapan will join the fray; in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Ravi Teja’s Ramarao speaking will have the upper hand, while in the Hindi belt, a lot will depend on how well Ek Villain opens.

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