"Dangal," the Aamir Khan movie that opened in India for the first-day screening on 23 December managed to dazzle the audience who queued up to buy tickets at the start of the Christmas weekend. The movie was of course critically acclaimed even before it hit the screens and projected audience numbers indicated this movie could be a game changer for Bollywood.

With brilliant performances by Aamir and other lead stars Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra, and all the hype of the highly anticipated movie it is not any surprise that on the first day this movie managed to get a reported 70 percent occupancy at the morning shows on Friday alone.

This is a very good indicator as it is an ordinary working day and the Christmas weekend proper has not yet started. Bear in mind as the main heartland of India get into the movie the same way the occupants of the big cities seemed to at the morning showing numbers should rise exponentially. They will have to if "Dangal" is to rank up there at the box office with the elite "PK."

The movie even saw the family of Salman Khan sitting down to be entertained. In his already famous tweet, Salman praised "Dangal" via his family who said it was even better than box office wrestling buster "Sultan."

But the way is not clear yet for "Dangal" to scream to the top of the money tower just yet.

There were disturbing reports that the 12-noon shows at single screenings took a big dip at only 30 to 40 percent occupancy. Perhaps this was just that it is a busy time for last minute Christmas holiday preparations with the weekend starting tomorrow.

'Dangal' lower seat occupancy at noon single screens

'Sultan' seats vs 'Dangal'

Comparing the seat occupancy in theaters against "Sultan," it looks as though the hopes that "Dangal" would be the instant all time big winner might not happen as it trails "Sultan" at all showings so far.

This is not a movie prediction to put your money on though. The audience reviews have been fantastic and word of mouth counts for a lot. Although Sultan opened to larger numbers, this movie has days to run yet and the evening shows are filling up fast with 80 percent occupancy and Current Bollywood reported that some of the multiplexes are running even higher than that.

Morning occupancy was very encouraging

Yo-yo first day doesn't matter - 'Dangal' is still looking to be a huge earner

The first-day take is estimated at 28-31 Cr on current trends but if the night show occupancy rises to a decent level then it may gross 32 Cr for the first day. "Dangal" is going to be a big hit and a big earner which is great news for Bollywood in 2016 and all that needs to be settled is whether it will out-gross "Sultan." "Dangal" has taken a superb opening at the box Office. This is the second biggest opening this year and all the reviews are excellent so far. It is certainly going to be somewhere in the top three earners this year.
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