Raees has just about survived at the box office to become a success but its not much credit to the film but to the star power of Shahrukh Khan. The pull of Shahrukh Khan and that decision to come on Wednesday has pulled the film through. The star pull would have worked on the holiday but next day the collections would have dropped as much so that 20 crore nett it picked up before the holiday means its looking at a 130 crore nett plus total otherwise it could have been more towards 115 crore nett. The film itself may have got some appreciation in the form of male audiences in Muslim centres that watch in single screens and this is a bit more than the competition Kaabil which could not find any appreciation from any demographic (barring the people who give stars and talk and write about films but they dont really count as its about the real watchers). But this single screen audience is not going to give the numbers expected from a Shahrukh Khan film unless its holiday after holiday then maybe you can get close.

The results will be similar to Dilwale in India but that somehow managed to sustain in West Bengal and become a big hit there which is not happening here and its a circuit where Shahrukh Khan totally dominates like no Hindi film star does now or in history. It has become the problem of Shahrukh Khan films lately where the content is not matching the star pull of the actor. The openings of Dilwale, Fan and Raees may not have been record breakers as far as numbers goes but if the clash and release factors are factored in for Dilwale and Raees and the niche genre of Fan than the numbers achieved by these films initially are huge. 

Fan had no chance to survive at the number it opened as these types survive at under 10 crore levels or even 5 not 19 crore. But both Dilwale and Raees opened at a level where just decent to good reports could have taken them to 200 crore nett and that with both films clashing with major films. Its about a Shahrukh Khan film having the content with universal appeal when that big number will easily come clash or no clash but the hope is that good content film comes when these big initials are coming as if the content keeps on missing the mark then the initial may also start to suffer making the big number harder.