After much anticipation and hype, Baby John, starring Varun Dhawan in the lead, released in theatres on December 25, on the occasion of Christmas, and looks like the festive mood has benefitted the makers. On its first day, Baby John minted Rs 12.50 crore in theatres, thus becoming Varun’s biggest opener in the past five years.
Baby John makers ditched the usual Friday release and instead, decided to drop their film in theatres on Wednesday, to earn profits in the festive week. However, it could not beat Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2, which is running in theatres for the third week now, as it earned Rs 19.75 crore on its 21st day.
On its first day, Baby John witnessed 24.97 per cent occupancy in the Hindi belt, as theatres are still running prime time shows of Pushpa 2 as well as Mufasa: The Lion King. Varun’s biggest opener till date happens to be his 2019 film, Kalank, which earned Rs 21 crore on its first day.
Baby John opened with mixed reviews from critics and masses, with one section calling it a “massy entertainer”, and another labelling it as “boring”.
The makers had earlier revealed that Baby John is an adaptation of Vijay’s blockbuster film, Theri, however, a lot of scenes were changed to justify Varun’s character and the film’s premise.
Besides Varun, Baby John also stars Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi and Jackie Shroff in key roles. The film has been directed by Kalees and produced by Atlee. If that wasn’t enough, the film also has an action-packed cameo by none other than superstar Salman Khan himself, and his entry scene was leaked on social media hours after the film’s release on Wednesday.
