We cannot vouch for the authenticity of these box office numbers given by independent box office tracking site Box Office Detail. However, until we have some official box-office tracking system in Pakistan this is all we have got. The numbers are also revised at times and hence you may observe fluctuations.
Debuting director Asim Abbasi’s ‘Cake’ passes the box office test with flying scores despite facing cut-throat competition from foreign contenders and low expectations.
The family drama, starring Aamina Sheikh, Sanam Saeed, Adnan Malik, and Mikaal Zulfiqar, is the only Pakistani film which released last week amid the slew of foreign films being played in the cinemas. The film was released in parallel with Bollywood action thriller Bhaagi 2, which joined other former Bollywood releases, i.e. Raid, Hichki, and Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety.
‘Cake’ opened slightly low on Friday and collected paltry 30 lacs on the first day. This does not come as a big surprise as the film lacked commercial appeal and had to contend with Baaghi 2, which was released to houseful theaters. The film, however, saw a surprisingly good trend on the rest of the weekend when it collected 35 lacs and 45 lacs on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. This upward trend helped the film to register a decent opening weekend, bringing its three-day collections to 1.1 crore.
The following weekdays again turned out surprisingly good in terms of the trend at the box office. ‘Cake’ saw an expected drop on Monday but the graph continually rose on the remaining weekdays, which is rare for a Pakistani movie. The film collected 15 lacs on Monday, 19 lacs on Tuesday, 22 lacs on Wednesday, and 24 lacs on Thursday. This helped the film to mint 80 lacs on weekdays, which is the more than 40% of the total first-week collections of 1.9 crore, another rare phenomenon for Pakistani movie.
There are two key factors which played their role in the decent first-week performance of an arty film like ‘Cake’.
First of all, the footfall of Bollywood film Bhaagi 2 helped the Pakistani counterpart to get the better than expected response on the opening weekend. The multiplexes brimmed with Baaghi fans, which opened to whopping 2 crore on Friday and collected more than 8 crore in the first week. The over-zealous response to the Bollywood film ultimately played in the favor of ‘Cake’.
The second factor, which is the main reason behind commendable trend on the weekdays, is the positive word of mouth and rave reviews received by the film. The film is praised highly by all factions and is termed as one of the best offered by Pakistani cinema. This must have helped the film in registering a decent opening week and making it perform much better than similar releases of the past.
While ‘Cake’ performed decently in the domestic market, it performed equally well abroad as well. The film collected around 1.85 crore internationally, including UK, Australia, and UAE. The total worldwide first-week collections of the film tallied to impressive 3.75 crore.
Here is the breakdown of domestic week 1 collections of ‘Cake’.
- Day 1 (Friday): 30 lacs
- Day 2 (Saturday): 35 lacs
- Day 3 (Sunday): 45 lacs
- Day 4 (Monday): 15 lacs
- Day 5 (Tuesday): 19 lacs
- Day 6 (Wednesday): 22 lacs
- Day 7 (Thursday): 24 lacs
- Total (domestic): 1.9 crore
Here is the breakdown of worldwide week 1 collections of ‘Cake’.
- Pakistan: 1.9 crore
- UK: 1.22 crore
- UAE: 0.47 crore
- Australia: 0.16 crore
- Total (worldwide): 3.75 crore
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