Rani Mukerji's Hichki is sixth Indian film to earn Rs 100 cr in China; sprints past Sultan, Baahubali 2

Rani Mukerji-starrer   _Hichki_  has become the sixth Indian film to rake in Rs 100 crore at the Chinese box office after Aamir Khan’s  PK, Dangal and Secret Superstar,  Salman Khan’s  Bajrangi Bhaijaan  and Irrfan Khan-starrer  Hindi Medium.  In local currency,  Hichki has collected a total of 97.11 million yuan and is on the verge of entering the 100 million mark soon.   [caption id=“attachment_4404423” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still of Rani Mukerji from Hichki. Image from Twitter.[/caption] While  Hindi Medium,  which landed in mainland cinemas on 4 April for the five-day Qingming festival weekend, cashed in on the blockbuster box office performances of previous Indian films such as  Secret Superstar  and  Bajrangi Bhaijaan,  the next set of releases  —  Baahubali 2: The Conclusion, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha  and  Sultan  —  fell short of expectations and registered underwhelming numbers at the ticket window.   Despite scoring a paltry opening day gross of $0.77 million (Rs 5.68 crore) in the PRC,  Hichki has made a strong comeback with a two-week total of $13.96 million (Rs 102.2 crore), thanks to the consistently growing word-of-mouth for the film. Now, the worldwide total of the film stands at a whopping Rs 178.23 crore, thanks to the fantastic response from the Middle Kingdom cinephiles.   While Hong Kong crime thriller  Project Gutenberg  topped the box office for the third consecutive weekend,  Hichki slipped to the fifth place in the second weekend (19 to 21 October) from the fourth spot opening weekend launch (12 to 14 October) in the daily box office chart. With a steady day-to-day growth,  Hichki has quietly occupied the third spot on 23 October and has held the position until Thursday (25 October). The Siddharth P Malhotra-directed film has outperformed Hollywood imports such as  The Spy Who Dumped Me, Smallfoot  and the local drama  Baby  to stay firmly at the third position. Besides sprinting past the lifetime China earnings of  Sultan, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion  and  Toilet: Ek Prem Katha  in just two weeks,  Hichki has also brought back the much-needed momentum for import films in the mainland, which has been witnessing a steep decline at the box office this month, including a dull week-long National Day holiday period (1 to 7 October). In fact, the third week of October (15 to 21) is the second weakest period of the year in the PRC box office.       With its running global total of Rs 178.23 crore,  Hichki has now eclipsed the worldwide gross of other commercially acclaimed 2018 releases such as Rajkummar Rao-starrer  Stree,  Akshay Kumar-starrer  Gold,  Luv Ranjan’s  Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety  and Ajay Devgn-starrer  Raid  to emerge as the sixth highest grossing Bollywood film of 2018. It is now only behind the table-toppers such as  Padmaavat, Sanju, Race 3,  Baaghi 2,  and  Raazi.   The Yash Raj Films production, which is the seventh Indian movie to release in the Middle Kingdom this year, is likely to hold steady and rake in the moolah for at least another one week. Now,  Hichki  needs around $2.5 million from China to supplant the lifetime earnings of Alia Bhatt-starrer  Raazi  and become the fifth highest earning Hindi film of 2018.   Hichki__,  which received a standing ovation in China when it was showcased at the Shanghai International Film Festival in June, continues to hold a good rating of 9.4 on  Maoyan, China’s popular ticket selling and box office platform, from 50,000 viewers with 16,000 fans voting under the ‘want to see’  section.  Maoyan’s  lifetime PRC forecast for the film stands at 120 million yuan (Rs 127 crore) for the film, which will make it comfortably surpass the worldwide cumulative of Meghna Gulzar’s  Raazi.   20 Century Fox’s sci-fi film  The Predator,  which bit the dust at the worldwide box office in September, is releasing in China today and nearly 1.1 lakh shows have been allocated to the Shane Black directorial on the opening day.  Hichki will also have to battle for screens with six more new releases such as  Crystal Sky of Yesterday, Crazy Little Thing, Kunfu League, Midnight Dreamers, Brothers of the Wind  and  Ala Changso.