Cobra box office: Vikram’s film doesn’t meet expectations, earns just ₹5 crore on Saturday

Vikram’s latest release Cobra has been in free fall at the box office after a somewhat promising opening. The action thriller earned just ₹5 crore at the box office across India and less than ₹4 crore in Tamil Nadu on Saturday, its fourth day of release. Given the sharp fall in earnings, experts have said only a ‘miracle’ may be able to save this film now.

Cobra had opened to earnings of just over ₹17 crore across India on Wednesday but saw a massive 70% fall the following day. On Saturday, the first weekend of its release, the film managed a 55% rise but it wasn’t enough given how low the numbers had fallen already. As per industry tracking website Sacnik, the film earned ₹5 crore nationally on Saturday, taking its total earnings to ₹30 crore, a disappointing four-day figure.

Even in Tamil Nadu, where Vikram’s popularity was expected to help the film, it hasn’t done well at all. On Sunday afternoon, industry trade analyst Manobala Vijayabalan tweeted that the film has done a business of just under ₹4 crore in Tamil Nadu on Saturday, taking its total gross in the state to ₹17 crore. “Despite Saturday the film failed to gain big momentum,” he wrote. In an earlier tweet posted on Saturday evening, the analyst had written, “Only a miracle can save the film.”

Cobra stars Vikram in a dual role, along with Srinidhi Shetty, Roshan Mathew and Irfan Pathan. Th film opened to mixed reviews with criticism of the plot and the three-hour runtime. On Thursday, a day after the release, the film’s maker released a statement that they were trimming the film by 20 minutes based on audience reactions. However, that did not seem to have had much positive effect on the film’s box office performance.