Ajay Devgn's ‘Dhamaal 4’ has made a solid start at the box office, outperforming early trade expectations despite arriving in cinemas amid stiff competition from several Hindi, South Indian and Hollywood releases.

The latest instalment in Indra Kumar's popular comedy franchise hit theatres on July 10 and emerged as the strongest new opener of the day. Early trade estimates suggest the film benefitted from steady audience turnout throughout Friday, giving it a healthy launch ahead of the crucial weekend.

Strong opening at the domestic and global box office

According to early estimates by Sacnilk, ‘Dhamaal 4’ collected an estimated ₹13.75 crore net in India on its opening day. Its India gross stood at around ₹16.50 crore, while the film added an estimated ₹5 crore from overseas markets, taking its worldwide gross to approximately ₹21.50 crore on Day 1.

The opening exceeded initial projections, which had placed the film's first-day earnings in the ₹12-13 crore range. The stronger-than-expected performance was driven by increasing footfalls as the day progressed, particularly in key markets where the franchise has traditionally performed well.

Occupancy improves through the day

The comedy was screened across 10,669 shows nationwide and recorded an overall occupancy of 24.54%.

Audience turnout gathered momentum with every show. Morning occupancy began at 8.38%, rising to 19.15% in the afternoon before reaching 24.85% during evening screenings. Night shows recorded the highest attendance of the day at 42%, signalling positive walk-in business.

Among major circuits, Delhi-NCR hosted the highest number of screenings with 969 shows, registering an occupancy of 22.8%. Mumbai followed with 820 shows, where occupancy stood at 24%, reflecting solid demand in one of the franchise's strongest markets.

Outperforms recent Ajay Devgn releases

The opening day figures place ‘Dhamaal 4’ ahead of several of Ajay Devgn's recent theatrical releases.

The film, with a runtime of 2 hours and 23 minutes, comfortably surpassed the opening collections of ‘De De Pyaar De 2’ (₹8.75 crore) and ‘Son of Sardaar 2’ (₹7.25 crore). However, it fell short of ‘Raid 2’, which debuted with ₹19.25 crore net on its opening day.

Within the franchise, the latest film also trails ‘Total Dhamaal’, which earned ₹16.5 crore on its first day, but has comfortably outperformed ‘Double Dhamaal’, which opened with ₹7.6 crore in 2011.

Faces crowded box office battle

‘Dhamaal 4’ entered cinemas alongside a packed slate of releases, sharing screens with Akshay Kumar's ‘Welcome To The Jungle’, Alia Bhatt's ‘Alpha’, Telugu action drama ‘Lenin’, horror title ‘Evil Dead Burn’ and Disney's live-action ‘Moana’.

Despite the competition, the comedy emerged as the highest-grossing new release on Friday and now heads into the weekend with favourable momentum.

Trade analysts expect collections to witness a significant jump over Saturday and Sunday if positive audience feedback continues. The film is also expected to enjoy an uninterrupted run over the coming week before Christopher Nolan's ‘The Odyssey’ arrives in theatres.

Early Saturday trend points to further growth

Initial trade reports suggest ‘Dhamaal 4’ has already registered stronger occupancy on its first Saturday, particularly during afternoon and evening shows.

If the trend continues through the day, the film is expected to collect around ₹20 crore net on Saturday, marking a substantial jump from its opening-day business and strengthening its weekend prospects.

About ‘Dhamaal 4’

Directed by Indra Kumar, ‘Dhamaal 4’ reunites franchise favourites Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Arshad Warsi and Jaaved Jaaferi, while adding Ravi Kishan, Esha Gupta, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Sanjay Mishra, Upendra Limaye, Anjali Anand and Vijay Patkar to the ensemble.

Moving away from the franchise's earlier road-trip adventures, the latest chapter centres on a pirate-themed treasure hunt with supernatural elements. The story retains the series' signature mix of slapstick humour and adventure, replacing the earlier clue of "W ke neeche" with a new mystery revolving around "M ke neeche".

The Central Board of Film Certification cleared the film with a U/A 13+ certificate, requiring only minor dialogue and gesture modifications.

While critics and audiences have delivered mixed reactions, performances by Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh and Sanjay Mishra have received praise. Some viewers, however, have criticised the screenplay and the use of AI-generated visual effects.