Hichki's Rs 150 crore haul in China helps it dethrone Raazi to become 2018's highest grossing woman-centric film

Rani Mukerji’s Hichki has successfully revived the much-needed momentum for Indian releases in China, which witnessed a significant slump over the past two months with poor to average performers like Baahubali: The Conclusion, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Sultan. [caption id=“attachment_4404423” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still of Rani Mukerji from Hichki. Image from Twitter.[/caption] The Yash Raj Films production has vaulted over the Rs 150 crore mark with a running Middle Kingdom total of $20.67 million (Rs 150.8 crore) from four weeks. The movie, which landed in China on 12 October, is the seventh Indian release in the PRC this year after Secret Superstar, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Hindi Medium, Baahubali: The Conclusion, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and Sultan. The Siddharth Malhotra-directed drama is also the fifth Indian movie to touch the Rs 150 crore mark in China after Dangal, Secret Superstar, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and Hindi Medium, which was the last successful Bollywood release to breach the $20 million milestone in the world’s second-largest movie market. Hichki was placed in the ninth position at the daily box-office chart in China for the weekend ending 4 November (2-4 November). In its fourth frame, the movie pulled in a theatrical revenue of $1.54 million (Rs 11.23 crore) despite a bevy of new releases such as The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Frozen Hero II, The Hurricane Heist, A Street Cat Named Bob, and You Beautify My Life. In fact, on Monday (5 November), Hichki moved up to occupy the seventh spot at the box-office chart and held its position on Tuesday too. In 15 days, Hichki had become the sixth Indian film to rake in Rs 100 crore at the Chinese box-office after Aamir Khan’s P_K, Dangal, Secret Superstar,_ Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and Irrfan Khan’s Hindi Medium. Now, it has supplanted the lifetime PRC earnings of Aamir Khan-Rajkumar Hirani’s blockbuster PK to emerge as the fifth highest-earning Indian film in China after Dangal, Secret Superstar, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Hindi Medium. After surging past the worldwide revenue of 2018’s box office winners such as Rajkummar Rao’s Stree, Akshay Kumar’s Gold, Luv Ranjan’s Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, Ajay Devgn’s Raid, Hichki has now dethroned Alia Bhatt-Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi to become the highest-grossing heroine-led film of 2018 and the fifth highest grosser of the year in Bollywood with a global running total of Rs 226.83 crore. Hichki is now only behind Padmaavat, Sanju, Race 3 and Baaghi 2 in the list of highest-grossing Hindi films of 2018. Maoyan, China’s popular ticket-selling, and box office platform, has predicted the lifetime total of Hichki as 147 million yuan (Rs 115 crore). So, it’s safe to assume that the cumulative worldwide gross of Baaghi 2 at Rs 254 crore would be left untouched unless Hichki springs a massive surprise in its fifth weekend. Now, the Middle Kingdom takings of Hichki, which features Rani Mukerji as a school teacher struggling to overcome her inhibitions as an individual with Tourette syndrome, is more than the twice the film’s Indian theatrical revenue of Rs 59.23 crore. The multi-city tour of Rani Mukerji in the mainland and her active participation in promotions have also played a key role in the film’s success. The project marks Yash Raj Films’ second entry into the Chinese market after Sultan, which winded up its month-long PRC run with a paltry total of $5.24 million (Rs 38 crore) on 30 September. Meanwhile, Chinese moviegoers are gearing up for the release of Sony’s Venom this week on 9 November. The Tom Hardy-starrer has already out-grossed the advance ticket sales of 2018’s best performers such as Ant-Man and the Wasp, and Black Panther in China and is now only behind Avengers: Infinity War.