Gold has taken a big lead over Satyameva Jayate on the first day as it looks to collect in the 25-26 crore nett region while Satyameva Jayate will collect in the 16-17 crore nett. Despite the big lead these are also strong collections for Satyameva Jayate. It was a big holiday for Independence Day which has given the collections a big boost. 

Gold is easily the highest opening for an Akshay Kumar starrer with previous best at 17 crore nett and for John Abraham the best his solo starrer had ever done before was Force 2 at 5.75 crore nett apprx so he has also beaten his best by a huge distance. Gold will come out higher in nearly all the circuits except maybe some of the smaller circuits.

Despite the big starts for both films, the jury will still be out as we go into working days before the weekend so there will be drops and the films will have to find their levels from these high numbers and then sustain from those levels.

It remains to be seen what happens over the next few days but Gold has won the initial battle due to the stardom of Akshay Kumar. Satyameva Jayate was a mass film which had action and music while Gold was more of a content film which held less appeal for the mass audience but that is where stardom comes into play.

Gold really had no right to be in the same range as Satyameva Jayate in places like Bihar, CI, Rajasthan and CP Berar but due to the presence of Akshay Kumar the collections are very similar and that too on Independence Day when the single screen crowd really comes out.  If it was a Rowdy Rathore type then obviously its a different story but Gold is not that. But this where stardom comes into play and big stars can bring crowds in markets where the film may not actually be their type.

Mumbai and Delhi / UP will be best performers for Gold. Both films have taken a hit in East Punjab due to a Punjabi film. Satyamev Jayate will be best in CPCI and Bihar while Maharashtra cities like Nasik, Kohlapur, Malegaon, Sangli etc have also seen very good collections. Both combined it will be biggest opening day in the history of Hindi cinema beating the 40 crore nett apprx of Bahubali - The Conclusion though that was a single film.