It came with minimal hype, but after three days, Arjun Sarja-starrer "Blast" is doing remarkably well, with an upward box-office trajectory fueled by strong word-of-mouth and progressively improving theatre occupancy rates over its opening weekend. It also gave Arjun his biggest opening in ages, in terms of a lead role.
According to box office figures from Sacnilk, the film registered an 81.4% collection-uptick on Day 3 compared to Day 2.
The film, which also features Abhirami and Preity Mukundhan in equally important lead roles, opened on Thursday at an initial 26% overall occupancy across 1,022 shows. On the second day, however, the occupancy jumped up to 39.60% overall across 1,889 shows. Reports also say that night shows spiked significantly to 59.62%. On the third day, Saturday, the occupancy reached a peak 56.46% for the Tamil version, with night screenings maxing out at 68.23%. The highest numbers came from Chennai screens, with an average occupancy of 49.5% early on, while cities like Bengaluru lagged at 14.5%.
The film is also doing exceptionally well in Kerala, bringing in the second-highest revenue share of the total earnings. According to regional trade trackers, the Kerala box office collections showed a massive jump from Day 1 to Day 3, going from around 6 lakhs to a staggering 72 lakhs on the third day, with the cumulative three-day gross from the state nearing Rs 1 crore.
The main reason for "Blast" clicking with Kerala audiences seems to be the similarities with the "Drishyam" franchise (it's been described by several netizens as the action-packed equivalent of the Mohanlal crime thriller) and "RDX" (which revolved around a family fighting malicious external forces). The positive mouth publicity has led to multiple late-night weekend shows running completely housefull across major cities like Kochi and Trivandrum, despite competing alongside major regional releases.
