Nani's actioner climbed past the three-digit mark in India even as single-day numbers kept sliding through the second week, raising questions about its reported Rs 200 crore budget.
Seven days in, The Paradise has done what a lot of big Telugu openers fail to do — it's past Rs 100 crore net in India. The milestone arrived on the back of a Wednesday collection of Rs 3.40 crore, per Sacnilk, which also happens to be a 22.7 per cent drop from Tuesday's Rs 4.40 crore. So the film is in that odd place where a number that sounds like triumph sits right next to a chart that looks like a slow leak.
Go back to opening day and the gap is stark. The Paradise launched to Rs 34.65 crore on Thursday, September 24, a number that screamed blockbuster. Friday wasn't kind, it nearly halved to Rs 14.90 crore. But the weekend held up reasonably well, with Rs 15.25 crore on Saturday and Rs 15.70 crore on Sunday. Then the weekday fall set in properly. Monday brought Rs 5 crore. Tuesday, Rs 4.40 crore. Wednesday, Rs 3.40 crore. That's a film losing more than 90 per cent of its opening-day number inside a week.
The India net total now stands at Rs 104.90 crore, with gross collections at Rs 123.95 crore. Overseas has added Rs 35 lakh more on Day 7, taking the foreign gross tally to Rs 30.85 crore, which puts the worldwide gross at Rs 154.80 crore. Not small change by any measure. But also not where a Rs 200 crore film, the budget figure being reported, though nobody connected to the project has confirmed it on record. Wants to be sitting a week in.
Language-wise, Telugu continues to carry the film. It brought in Rs 2.65 crore of Wednesday's total, with Hindi contributing Rs 65 lakh and Tamil trailing at Rs 10 lakh. That split tells its own story about where The Paradise actually found its audience, whatever the pan-India ambitions behind it were.
Critics have been lukewarm at best. The Free Press Journal's own review landed at 1.5 stars, calling it visually striking while flagging a narrative that doesn't hold together and action that overreaches. The review put it plainly: the film works as spectacle for Nani loyalists but "skipping this film seems a better option for those who do not prefer hardcore violence and spineless action."
Where does that leave the film? Past the Rs 100 crore line, which is no small thing, but bleeding badly through weekdays with a budget question mark hanging over the whole run. The second weekend, starting Friday, will decide whether The Paradise settles into respectable-hit territory or just limps to a finish that falls well short of covering what it reportedly cost to make. Exhibitors will be watching Thursday's number closely, a film seven days in doesn't usually get much benefit of the doubt left.
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