Director Mahesh Narayanan's "Patriot", which reunites Malayalam superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal after nearly two decades, has achieved a strong start at the box office, grossing over Rs 50.23 crore worldwide in its first two days.
The film marks the second-biggest opening in the history of Malayalam cinema, trailing only the Mohanlal-starrer "L2: Empuraan", directed by Prithviraj Sukumaran.
However, despite the film opening big on the first day, it was followed by a sharp decline in domestic collections on its second day.
On Day 1, it collected Rs 10 crore in domestic net collection, with Rs 11.60 crore in domestic gross. Overseas, it collected Rs 18 crore on the same day, contributed to the cumulative worldwide cumulative gross of Rs 29.37 crore.
On Day 2, it collected Rs 6.15 crore in net figures and Rs 7.13 crore in gross. With Day 2 overseas earnings totalling Rs 15 crore, the cumulative global gross for that day stood at Rs 20.86 crore. With Rs 1.26 crore (and counting) from Day 3, the worldwide total so far was taken to Rs 50.23 crore.
Kerala remains the primary market, contributing Rs 8.5 crore on the opening day alone. Other notable contributors include Karnataka (Rs 1.6 crore) and Tamil Nadu (Rs 0.8 crore).
The film witnessed massive pre-sales on BookMyShow, selling over 3.33 lakh tickets before its release.
Currently, "L2: Empuraan" remains the gold standard when it comes to openings, achieving the fastest Rs 100 crore mark in Malayalam cinema history in less than 48 hours. "Patriot", despite the historic reunion, earned roughly half of that total in the same timeframe.
When compared to Mammootty's other recent big hits, "Patriot" earned double the two-day opening of Mammootty's biggest recent solo action hit, "Turbo" (Rs 26.50 crore). It also significantly outpaced the actor's experimental horror hit "Bramayugam" (Rs 13.56 crore).
"Patriot" experiencing a 38.5% drop on its second day is not uncommon as "L2: Empuraan" also saw a significant drop of over 45% on its second day in domestic markets, yet maintained enough momentum to cross the Rs 100 crore milestone globally.
