'Kantara' box office collection: Rs 60 crore & counting

Bengaluru, Oct 12: Rishab Shetty's 'Kantara' has emerged as the second biggest hit at the box office. The movie has been overwhelmingly received by the Kannada audience as the movie is now ready to hit the release in other languages.

The film, which was released to a decent hype on September 30, had collected a little over Rs 2 crore on the first day. "However, the movie has estimated to have earned over Rs 60 crore in 12 days," an industry tracker, who closely follows film business in Karnataka, tells Oneindia. "In fact yesterday's collection is much better than the first-day collection," he points out.

The movie is running packed houses across the state with unprecedented demands for tickets. "Even after 11 days, there is so much demand for tickets. Tickets for the prime-time shows are selling like hotcakes. We are getting round the clock requests for tickets," a manager at a single screen states.

A look at the BookMyShow website clearly throws light at the demand for the tickets in Bengaluru and other key centres.

Trade trackers say that the industry was not prepared for such a hit. "Nobody expected 'Kantara' to do so well. So, the film was released in limited screens. Further, there were big films like 'Ponniytin Selvan' and 'Vikram Vedha'. Well, the success took everyone by a surprise," another senior cinema journalist claims.

The film has raked in $359,989 till Monday at the US box office. In fact, 'Kantara' is now next only to Yash's blockbuster 'KGF' series.

Check out the top 10 highest grossing Kannada movies in North America:

• KGF Chapter 2: $7,418,131
• KGF Chapter 1: $805,637
• Kantara: $359,989
• Rangitaranga: $315,098
• Kirik Party: $270,568
• Vikrant Rona: $182,091
• 777 Charlie: $171,417
• Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu: $170,863
• James: $126,118
• Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shale Kasaragodu: $120,697

On the other hand, the Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam versions of 'Kantara' is set to release this week.