The Force wasn’t enough to compete with the powerful pairing of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol at the UAE box office this weekend.
Over 140,000 people went to see Dilwale, which sees the reunion of Bollywood stars Khan and Kajol on the big screen after a five-year gap.
In contrast, approximately 77,000 people went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the much-anticipated seventh installment in the space-opera franchise.
In third place on what was one of the busiest cinema weekends this year, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Bajirao Mastani, a historical drama starring real-life couple Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, had approximately 40,000 entries.
The figures, for UAE cinema entries from December 17 and 18, were released by local distributor Phars Film.
“In the 50 years that I have been screening Bollywood films in the UAE, Dilwale is the No 1 all-time Indian movie opening,” said an elated Ahmad Golchin, general manager of Phars Film, the distributor of Dilwale.
“Audiences liked Dilwale because it’s got happy moments. It seems people are deciding, since schools are closed, Christmas and new year are coming, they need some family entertainment.
“Bajirao Mastani is beautiful, but not for this season.”
Golchin expects entries for Dilwale to reach 250,000 by Monday, when international box office results for the weekend are announced. Star Wars is already on track to break box office records globally this weekend.
The film headed towards $125 million in US and Canadian ticket sales on Friday and a potential record-breaking $225 million through Sunday, with expectations is could be the biggest opening weekend of all time (the current holder of the title, this summer’s dinosaur adventure Jurassic World, took $208.8 million in June).
The movie has opened in 44 countries outside North America, earning $72.7 million in total through Thursday.