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Barbie’s box office blitzkrieg didn’t stand a chance against the might of Rajinikanth in the UAE, with the latter’s latest film Jailer emerging as the biggest grosser of 2023 in the country.
The Tamil-language action-thriller has earned $6.44 million at the UAE box office since its release on August 10, with its first week haul already propelling it ahead of the country’s biggest earner of the year, Pathan.
Figures released by worldwide movie earnings aggregator Box Office Mojo revealed that Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathan maintained its pole position in the UAE with $6 million in collections all through the first half of 2023, despite the release of tentpole Hollywood productions such as the Tom Cruise-starrer Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. However, the film slipped to the second spot following the release of Jailer.
“Rajinikanth’s Jailer has created magic at the UAE box office since its opening weekend, recording nearly three times more admissions than Barbie,” said Ahmed Golchin, the founder and chairman of movie distribution company Phars Films and Star Cinemas in the UAE.
According to figures shared by the UAE theatre owner, Jailer’s three-day opening weekend saw a total of 243,123 cinema admissions, with Barbie processing 81,757 ticket receipts. Box Office Mojo calculated Barbie’s opening weekend haul close to $1.9 million in the UAE.
Jailer’s success has been experienced GCC-wide, with Home Screen Entertainment, the local distributors of the film, revealing the Sun Pictures production recorded more than 412,000 admissions across the region in the first four days of release.
Golchin added the success of the film, which also features cameos by several A-list stars including Malayalam veteran Mohanlal and Kannada cinema’s Shiva Rajkumar, has further prompted the makers to release the Hindi and Telugu-language versions of the Nelson Dilipkumar-directed Jailer in the UAE this weekend.
The August 10 weekend proved to a big one for the UAE, with Rajnikanth fans showing up at several Dubai cinemas on Jailer’s opening day to break out into song and dance with live performances, even as Barbie’s global viral marketing campaign continued to get eyeballs with several mall pop-ups.
Barbie’s delayed release in the UAE and Saudi Arabia didn’t dial down the hype in the lead up to its screen last week, with theatres such as Roxy Cinemas reporting record-breaking ticket pre-sales despite facing competition from several Bollywood and South Indian releases, including Sunny Deol–starrer Gadar 2.
The Margot Robbie-led Barbie has already crossed the $1.2 billion mark at the worldwide box office. Directed by Greta Gerwig, the fantasy comedy is set to become the largest US grosser for Warner Bros., dethroning Christopher Nolan’s 2008 superhero epic, The Dark Knight.
And while Barbie’s pink-hued appeal couldn’t dethrone Rajinikanth or Shah Rukh Khan in the UAE, the people’s toy princess is on track to be crowned the highest grosser of 2023 in the US.
(Reporting by Bindu Rai, editing by Brinda Darasha)
