‘Kalki 2898 AD’ opened on a slow note at the box office on Friday but managed to keep the audience’s excitement alive. The science-fiction drama starring Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan earned around Rs 50 crore (early estimates) on the second day, taking the two-day collection to around Rs 150 crore.

Directed by Nag Ashwin, it is being touted as a visual spectacular and the collections are expected to rise from Saturday. With Friday being a working day, a net collection of Rs 50 crore in India is good. This is equal to the second day collections of Prabhas’ ‘Salaar-Part 1: Ceasefire’. After its two-day business, the Prashanth Neel directorial has grossed Rs 147.05 crore in India. However, ‘Baahubali 2’, which is the biggest film of the actor’s career, was at Rs 90 crore on the second day. ‘Adipurush’ was far behind with Rs 65.25 crore on the second day, which now seems very less in comparison.

As per trade website reports, ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ grossed Rs 95.3 crore in India while its worldwide collection was around Rs 175 crore. SaconilcInterestingly, the drop on Friday came primarily from the Telugu market, where it had opened with a collection of Rs 65.8 crore. On the second day, while the Hindi version continued its Rs 20 crore business, the Telugu version collected in the Rs 24-25 crore range. This is a strange trend as there shouldn’t have been a huge drop from the market where the film was expected to gain maximum profits. The opening day business in the Telugu states was around Rs 65 crore.

Another interesting trend is that the weekend might see some spectacular growth in North India, where tickets are finally selling in big numbers. Kalki 2898 AD is expected to gross around Rs 500 crore over the four-day weekend. This is only possible if it almost doubles its single-day business in the country. With the mixed buzz, it looks far-fetched right now, but certainly not impossible. It seems a lot depends on Saturday’s business!