As Kabali-Sultan comparisons are drawn, these are the numbers Rajinikanth starrer has to beat

“Is Kabali going to ‘dethrone’ Sultan?” “Will Kabali stop Sultan’s glorious box office run in its tracks?” Will Rajinikanth’s movie have an even more phenomenal box office opening than Salman Khan’s wrestling drama? With the release of Kabali just three days away (22 July, Friday) buzz around the film is very high. [caption id=“attachment_2901882” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rajinikanth in the ‘Neruppu Da’ song from ‘Kabali’. Screengrab from YouTube[/caption] And it’s understandable. Not only does it mark the return of superstar Rajinikanth to the big screen after nearly two years, it is also different from his previous cinematic outings like Robot, Rana, Kochadaiyaan and Lingaa in that this isn’t an animated, virtually created, overly airbrushed Rajini that fans will see, but rather, the flesh-and-blood man, looking closer to his real life age and avatar than ever before. Add to that an engaging storyline and a soundtrack that’s gone viral, and you have a recipe for a good box office opening. Rajinikanth’s Kabali has all this, and with the mass adulation and worship that the megastar commands, the comparisons with another phenomenon — Salman Khan, and his Sultan, are natural. To meet those expectations of ‘dethroning’ Sultan, what are the numbers Kabali needs to meet? Sultan opened on 6 July 2016, and earned between Rs 34-36 crore (cr) on its first day alone. It’s among the higher opening day collections for a Bollywood film — although not the highest (Salman’s own Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo earned Rs 40 cr on day one in the theatres, Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year garnered Rs 44 cr). Sultan entered the coveted ‘100-crore club’ within three days (Dhoom 3 and HNY had performed the same feat, as had Salman’s 2015 releases, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and PRDP). After a little over two weeks in the theatres, Sultan has gained box office collections in excess of Rs 260 cr. _See a full break-down of _Sultan_'s box office report, and how it compares to the business of other Salman Khan starrers, on _Firstpost_._ Kabali would need to make similar collections in as many days. Why there’s a very good chance it will succeed in doing just that? Firstly, the producers of Kabali — Kalaipuli S Thanu’s V Creations — have created lots of merchandising opportunities around the film. From aircraft decked with immense posters of Rajinikanth in his ’look’ as Don Kabali, to Kabali SIM cards and the usual T-shirts, posters etc, they’ve tapped into a huge publicity and promotional vein that has ensured that curiosity about Kabali — even among moviegoers who wouldn’t count as hardcore Rajinikanth fans — is very high. [caption id=“attachment_2901888” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Salman Khan’s ‘Sultan’ has earned over Rs 260 cr in its two-week box office run[/caption] Secondly, Kabali has already earned Rs 200 cr in pre-release business. This includes earnings from distribution rights, brand tie-ups, but not satellite rights — which should fetch the producers a neat sum quite apart from the box office collection. _Read on Firstpost: How Rajinikanth's 'Kabali' has earned Rs 200 crore, days before its release_ Advance booking tickets for all Kabali shows have been sold out — until Sunday, 24 July. In Chennai, even VIPs who want to watch the film cannot access tickets for the first few days, leading them to travel to paces like Coimbatore to catch screenings instead. If Lingaa and Kochadaiyaan didn’t manage to reach out to a huge chunk of audiences, that certainly isn’t the case with Kabali. In the post-Baahubali landscape, Kabali’s makers too have promoted it extensively in areas that do not form Rajinikanth’s ‘core fan constituency’ — 1,000 screens in North India alone (with 4,000+ screens worldwide), dubbing in languages like Chinese, Malay in addition to Hindi, Telugu and the original Tamil. Amid these numbers, producer KS Thanu’s belief that Kabali could cross Rs 500 crore in total earnings doesn’t seem like too difficult a target to achieve. _Kalaipuli S Thanu tells Firstpost exclusively: 'I expect Kabali to make Rs 500 cr'_ Kabali doesn’t have the benefit of a prolonged holiday, unlike Sultan, for its release. But then, that should be a small obstacle to surmount for Superstar Rajinikanth.