Rajnikanth film has an Aamir like opening in US

Setting a huge recording for a Tamil film -- which was also dubbed into Telugu and Hindi -- the Rajnikanth juggernaut Endhiran grossed over the weekend an estimated $1.56 million in North America.

But it could not topple the $1.7 million record weekend gross of 3 Idiots. The Aamir Khan starrer has become the highest grossing Indian film in North American at $6 million.

While Robot, which was showing in 139 theatres is the toast of the town, the romantic film Anjaana Anjaani had a decent opening. It grossed $517,000 in 91 theatres.

This is an awesome gross for any Indian film, particularly a Tamil film, said a distributor who asked not to be named. But people forget a number of theaters doubled the admission price for many shows to $25, some even charged $40 which would be more than the Imax admission price for Avatar.

Robot became the bigger weekend opening film in North America not only for Rajnikanth but also Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Many diehard Rajnikanth fans at universities, even those who have just started their studies and have to watch out for every penny spent, saw the film mostly on Friday or Saturday.

To some in New York meant not going to the Diwali mela which attracts over 100,000 people. Several newly migrated students from Tamil Nadu and other southern states, especially those enrolled at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said they did not feel homesick for many days, in anticipation of seeing Robot.

The Diwali mela would be there next year, said some but the thrill of seeing Robot would not be around.

According to Robot distributor, the film took $170,000 for the Hindi version (39 locations), $330,000 (Telugu, 33 locations) while the Tamil version grossed $1.1 million at 64 venues.

How the film will hold in the coming three weeks will shape its final box office. Most hit films tumble by about 65 percent in the second week By conservative estimate, Robot would end up with $2.5 million in North America.

The movie is also expected to do solid business in the United Kingdom with its 180,000 Tamil population.

The three-day gross in North America, the UK, France, Singapore and Malaysia could exceed $3 million.

The film which reportedly cost $31 million, with additional $10 million for prints and publicity will have to earn about $80 million through ticket sales and revenue form ancillary markets including music and TV rights.

Many young viewers who said they would have loved to see it the second time in the opening weekend, also confessed that they would be seeing it again after two weeks when the admission rates would be the standard $10.