BO Update: Rajnikanth outinitials SRK in USA; Endhiran leaves Anjana Anjani behind in India

That Endhiran was setting records in India was a possibility given that half of Tamil Nadu appeared to be watching the movie on Friday. The joke in Tamil circles is that the "parking lot collection for Endhiran is higher than the entire box office collection of Anjaana Anjaani", the Ranbir Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra starrer. That is not true but clearly Endhiran was going to put up a bumper figure in India as even the Hindi version showed a jump on Saturday. At this point it appears that Endhiran has done atleast Rs. 40 crores gross in its opening weekend from the South and a similar nett (due to fact that entertainment tax is very low or rather 0 in Tamil Nadu for Tamil films). The Hindi version Robot has done another 12-13 crores gross. The record holder for Indian films is Dabangg right now, last month's Salman Khan starrer which did a Rs. 70 crores opening weekend gross (49-50 crores weekend net) in India last month over its 3 day weekend. The overall current raw grossing topper is Raju Hirani's 3 Idiots which registered an all India gross of approximately Rs. 300 crores apart from $2.5 million in UK and $6.5 million in USA.

Speaking of USA, what has come as the bigger surprise is the film Endhiran/Robot may have set a new record for Indian films in USA box office by taking in over $2 million for a 3 day weekend. That beats even the US opening weekend mark set by Shahrukh Khan's My Name is Khan, which failed to impress much in India, but took a big number in USA atleast at around $1.9 million for a 3 day weekend opening. But Endhiran has taken a bigger opening with its core audience in India and beaten the likes of Shah Rukh Khan starrer MNIK overseas in US also. The irony is Shahrukh Khan was also in consideration for Robot before Rajnikanth decided to make it. If the film can sustain, it may even catch 3I's mark of $6.5 million in US.

Nonetheless now the question will be how long does Endhiran show legs and how long before a Bollywood film takes back the opening bonanza marks. As mentioned earlier, a very large percentage of Tamil Nadu, and to a lesser extent Andhra Pradesh expatriates have shown up for Rajnikanth's Endhiran. If a similar percentage of Hindi states citizenry showed up en masse behind a Hindi movie, the opening generated would be much much bigger than Endhiran. But this kind of intensity in middle India can not be generated by a Karan Johar type overseas pseudo-pop cinema like Anjaana Anjaani or on the other extreme, a Raavan (Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai) type cultural inversion.

As for Ranbir Kapoor's Anjaana Anjani the film had a decent opening on Friday but the overseas set love story with Priyanka Chopra was losing steam by Sunday. It looks to have had about a 38-40 crore gross weekend.