Channa Mereya from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Channa Mereya from Ae Dil Hai MushkilTwitter

Despite staying mired in controversy most of its pre-release period, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has managed to earn money at the box office. Positive word-of-mouth and strong reviews have helped the Karan Johar-directed film perform exceptionally well, not just in India, but also globally.

The romantic-drama, which was released on October 28, has collected Rs 41.05 crore gross at the overseas box office in its opening weekend. This means, the worldwide box office collection of ADHM now stands at Rs 90.96 crore gross.

As per early estimates, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is believed to have added another Rs 12 to Rs 15 crore gross on its first Monday to its overseas box office collection.

In other news, Ayaan (Ranbir Kapoor) and Alizeh's (Anushka Sharma) story has been well received in North America and UAE/ GCC. In these regions, ADHM has minted Rs 26.74 crore gross. The United Kingdom and Australia are the other two countries, in which the romantic-drama has really performed well.

Taran Adarsh wrote: #ADHM packs a SOLID PUNCH in intl markets... Opening weekend: $ 6.15 million [₹ 41.05 cr]... HIGHEST opening weekend for KJo and Ranbir.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil released on October 28, same day as Ajay Devgn's Shivaay. Even though it was being predicted that Devgn's film would shine brighter at the ticket window than ADHM, the numbers say a different story.

The overseas box office numbers of Shivaay are yet to be out, but the domestic figures are lower than that of ADHM. In three days, the action-thriller film has minted Rs 28.56 crore from the domestic circuits.

So, why is Ae Dil Hai Mushkil winning this box office clash?

While it's too soon to announce a verdict as to which film is a hit and which, a flop, the box office numbers are definitely in Johar's film's favour. What really worked for the filmmaker were the songs, the controversy, star cast and genre.