Kantara Chapter 1 grossed Rs. 5 crore approx at the Karnataka box office yesterday. With that, its total box office gross in the state has reached Rs. 202.50 crore approx, breaching the Rs. 200 crore mark. It took Rishab Shetty starrer nineteen days to hit the double century, and the day it happened was Diwali.
Karnataka has now joined Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu to become the fourth state to have a Rs. 200 crore grosser film. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have multiple Rs. 200 crore grossers, with the former also having a Rs. 300 crore film.
The Rs. 200 Crore Grossers by State are as follows:
| Year | State | Title | Gross |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Maharasthra | Baahubali: The Conclusion | Rs. 220.00 cr. |
| 2022 | Andhra Pradesh | RRR | Rs. 226.00 cr. |
| 2022 | Tamil Nadu | Ponniyin Selvan: I | Rs. 222.00 cr. |
| 2023 | Tamil Nadu | Leo | Rs. 232.00 cr. |
| 2024 | Tamil Nadu | The Greatest of All Time | Rs. 219.00 cr. |
| 2024 | Maharasthra | Pushpa: The Rule | Rs. 255.00 cr. |
| 2025 | Maharasthra | Chhaava | Rs. 330.00 cr. |
| 2025 | Karnataka | Kantara: Chapter 1 | Rs. 202.50 cr. |
Earlier last week, the film emerged as the highest-grossing film ever in Karnataka, overtaking the original Kantara. The film is sustaining strongly at the box office. At its current pace, it is projected to collect around Rs. 230-235 crore, a staggering Rs. 60 crore over the previous record gross.
Playing a significant role in the massive gross is the enhanced ticket prices. Just a couple of weeks before the release of the film, the state government had mandated a price limit on movie tickets. The makers of the film went to court challenging the move, and the court stayed the government order. Had that not happened, the film would have still become the record grosser in the state and possibly even hit the Rs. 200 crore mark, but that would have taken longer.
The film has sold nearly 70 lakh tickets in the state and will likely close around 85 lakh or so. That will be more than films like KGF (75 lakh) and KGF 2 (70 lakh) but lower than Kantara, which had nearly a crore footfalls. Of course, if the tickets were at a normal level, the film would have gotten closer to the number of its predecessor, maybe even match or exceed it.
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