Rajinikanth in 2.0
A screen shot from the teaser of Rajinikanth's 2.0.PR Handout

Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar's 2.0 has got a below-average start at the China box office despite releasing in huge number of screens. But the Shankar-directorial has beaten the opening-weekend record of SS Rajamouli's Baahubali: The Beginning.

2.0 released in 48,000 screens on Friday, 6 September. On the first day, the movie, which is being distributed by Star Alliance Ltd, got a decent start by grossing $1.37 million on the first day. The trade trackers were expecting the collection of the film to witness growth on the following day, but the Rajini-starrer failed to create any magic and business saw a massive dip.

On the second day, 2.0 has made a collection of $0.72 million and the business completely declined on Sunday as it could earn only $0.39 million to take its three-day total to $2.47 million which approximately is Rs 17.68 crore.

Although the business has completely dropped, the makers might feel happy with the fact that 2.0 has made a better collection than the first instalment of the Baahubali that had raked in $720,000 (roughly Rs 5.15 crore) in the first weekend. It may be recalled that the second instalment of the film had performed a lot better than the first instalment by doing a lifetime collection of Rs 80+ crore.

With such a below-average start, 2.0 needs extremely good word-of-mouth from the Chinese audience to strike gold at the box office.

The Rajinikanth-starrer was made with a budget of Rs 570 crore. The movie opened to mixed reviews in India and around the globe after releasing in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu languages on a large scale in November 2018. It minted Rs 625 crore (excluding China) at the worldwide box office.

In spite of doing such a huge business, the movie is not considered a hit at the box office due to such a mammoth budget. The worldwide total collection after China release stands at Rs 642+ crore.

Lyca Productions-funded movie had Rajinikanth in multiple roles, while Akshay Kumar has enacted the character of the antagonist. Amy Jackson appears as a robot in the mega-budget flick.

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