PK races ahead at Pakistani box office, inches closer to beating Waar

E-Paper | March 03, 2026

Any movie that has Aamir Khan's name attached to it seems to do well at the box office. Everyone expected PK to do well but what was perhaps not expected was the gravity of its success.

PK has become the highest worldwide Bollywood grosser raking in over INR600 crore. It's a win-win for Aamir Khan as he beats the record for his other film Dhoom 3 which had earned slightly over INR540 crore.

Talking to Dawn, Marketing Manager from Distributor Club (PVT) Ltd Hassaan Rizvi says: "PK has made over Rs18 crore in Pakistan and continues to attract movie-goers. It will be in cinemas until the end of January so I'm sure it will make a lot more."

He adds: "The movie thrives because it entails a strong message, and of course because of Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani."

PK's box office revenue in Pakistan is inching close to beating Waar's record of Rs22 crore (statistics provided by Saad Baig of Footprint (Pvt) Ltd). By Jan 6, PK had made almost Rs15 crore and has managed to cross Rs18 crore in a matter of four days. It is likely that the movie will keep the momentum going and Aamir Khan's depiction of a quirky alien addressing deep rooted social issues will keep the house full.

Whether PK will break the record for Dhoom 3, which did colossal business in Pakistan making over Rs24.5 crore, is still up in the air. PK has three weeks left in cinemas to do so.

The film has made a profit of around 205 per cent for the makers, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The overall production cost of the film is estimated to be INR100 crore and PK earned the makers their investment back just from its domestic run.

Aamir Khan has yet again proven that he is the box office king. In India, he set the trend of INR100 crore with Ghajini, broke it by raking in INR200 crore with 3 Idiots and now exceeded all expectations by bringing in INR300 crore with PK.

According to Hindustan Times, since 2001, Aamir Khan films have raked in a whopping 2,200 crore.

PK stars Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma in lead roles, with Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani, Saurabh Shukla and Sanjay Dutt in supporting roles.

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BigBoss

Jan 10, 2015 04:23pm

I am surprised people wathing PK in pakistan. There is a lot to learn in this movie. Take your kids to watch it.

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Dishum

Jan 10, 2015 04:49pm

I guess the establishment will now need to invent another fictional success.

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Tranquil

Jan 10, 2015 05:15pm

good there should be competition

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surgeon

Jan 10, 2015 05:16pm

It's really great to know that PK is running successfully in Pakistanis theatres. It has so much to learn and points to ponder. Pakistan is full of these wrong numbers that PK has pointed. I wish the masses learn something from this movie.

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Ayesha

Jan 10, 2015 05:17pm

Waar is the best film. Far better than PK. PK' success is nothing more than hype created by some anti-nationals to demoralize Pakistani film makers.

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Ahmed

Jan 10, 2015 05:44pm

@Ayesha Do you really think that? Although the direction of waar was good but it was none the less a propaganda film. PK is an entertainer, a comedy with a strong message. We must learn to give credit where due. Do not let nationalism play with your emotions.

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navas

Jan 10, 2015 05:46pm

direction of sindhi director Rajkumar hirani

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smvn

Jan 10, 2015 05:53pm

@Ayesha it is all a conspiracy

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Jan 10, 2015 06:14pm

@Ayesha yeah mam absolutely see the worldwide earnings of both the films how can PK even beat what war did .... Right?

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Indian

Jan 10, 2015 06:15pm

@Ayesha "Waar is the best film. Far better than PK. PK' success is nothing more than hype created by some anti-nationals to demoralize Pakistani film makers." Can't you breathe without conspiracy theories??

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arindam

Jan 10, 2015 06:39pm

@Ayesha you people will never change

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Amarnath

Jan 10, 2015 06:49pm

I cannot remember any movie personality being associated with as many movies that has attained "cult stautus" as Amir khan. -Andaz Apna Apna -Jo jeeta wohi kalandar -3 idiots -and soon PK These kinds of movies don't die for a long time. PK will bear waar.

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Abdul kadir

Jan 10, 2015 06:52pm

@Ayesha This is not a anti national movie . Its a movie people wanted to watch many times to wake up from dark reality , to motivate their children which Waar was failed to do so.Tell me yourself did waar inspired you or would you want to watch it again?

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Sunil

Jan 10, 2015 07:03pm

@Ayesha Raj Kumar Hirani is the director of the movie Pk, is an Indian, how come he is anti national of Pakistan?

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World sans M*lms

Jan 10, 2015 07:31pm

@Ayesha : get well soon!!!

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zak the supreme

Jan 10, 2015 07:39pm

@Ayesha typical , typical

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Jan 10, 2015 07:58pm

@Ayesha, calling your own citizen anti-national and denouncing same media that you read and write comments. We Indian read Dawn and trust it and you being a Pakistani if something you don't like you call media hype and anti-national. Pls be a rational person. Say good if something is good. Learn to appreciate others, otherwise with this mindset you will have a gun in hand and join the justice group. Stop this hatred.

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guddu

Jan 10, 2015 08:11pm

Pakistan have only one movie in its basket to compare with every bollywood movie screened in Pakistan believe me i have download that waar movie from YouTube its good for nothing.

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Weirdity

Jan 10, 2015 08:16pm

@Ayesha "Waar is the best film. Far better than PK. PK' success is nothing more than hype created by some anti-nationals to demoralize Pakistani film makers." Of course! Isn't it obvious. Its every Pakistanis patriotic duty to make sure that their judgement on film quality is influenced by "patriotism". Well done Ayesha! You are an intellectual of high caliber!

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Rashid

Jan 10, 2015 08:21pm

The success of this film and Dhoom3 proves the prevailing hypocrisy in our society. Hate India to limits, but also watch their content to limits.

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Gaurav Arya

Jan 10, 2015 08:34pm

@Ayesha - I agree. Aamir, Salman and SRK are useless. Shaan is the best. Nothing like Waar.

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Gaurav Arya

Jan 10, 2015 08:36pm

The next big ones will be "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" and "Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo" starring Salman Khan. And then, watch Salma in and as "Sher Khan".

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Sanjeev

Jan 10, 2015 08:53pm

@Ayesha - this name i think is also of a historical teenager! How can 1.5 bn people be so blind

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Adeel

Jan 10, 2015 09:02pm

@Ayesha WAAR was not even a good movie by any standard. It was a Pure Propaganda movie with low grade acting and weak story. PK is a master piece having strong message and great acting. Try to appreciate a Good thing and dont be bias.

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Pukhtoon Yama

Jan 10, 2015 09:02pm

@Ayesha seriously !!

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mark

Jan 10, 2015 09:05pm

@Ayesha Get well soon

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Jan 10, 2015 10:15pm

@Ayesha this kinda comments from a rational person like you....not expected

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hamza

Jan 10, 2015 10:29pm

@surgeon i think this movie is primarily aimed to highlight wrongs numbers present in India....you should more be worried about them than Pakistan.....in short words, PK is discouraging paganism in all forms whether in India or Pakistan

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aky

Jan 10, 2015 10:41pm

@Ayesha I am not surprised. Every thing for you is anti-national elements. Live n let live

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MIqbal

Jan 10, 2015 10:42pm

@zak the supreme Agree...Agreee

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Karthik n

Jan 10, 2015 10:54pm

Good things to learn about bigotry of religions and fraudsters

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Nobody

Jan 10, 2015 10:57pm

@Ayesha of course, it's a CIA-RAW-MOSSAD conspiracy against the pakistan culture ain't it?? I can see u r a zaid hamid follower :D

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Malik

Jan 10, 2015 11:43pm

@Ayesha Dear Mam, loved your patriotic comment! We should dissuade this cultural invasion. Why cant our public watch movies from Iran, Egypt, China etc. We spend on Indian movies making their bank balance fatter

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Xoxo

Jan 11, 2015 12:38am

@Dishum Which was the original fictional success? Sorry, I am not upto-date with Pakistani/Indian cinema.

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LazyLeopard

Jan 11, 2015 12:57am

@Ayesha *facepalm* Waar had no story or suspense. There is no comparison between these too. Waar even cannot be compared to PK.

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Akhtar

Jan 11, 2015 01:07am

Waar was thousand times better movie.

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Faisal A

Jan 11, 2015 01:51am

@Sanjeev When people like you don't have clue about things, they consider their knowledge as complete and thus think other people as ignorant. There must be good reasons why 1.5 billion people are blind (in your perspective). When you search and dig into those reasons, you might also get "blind".

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Sadiq Ali Bohra

Jan 11, 2015 02:29am

@Ayesha limit yar... Its because of mindsets like u that give us all bad reputation.

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Malik

Jan 11, 2015 02:50am

@Ayesha Thou are the MOST enlightened one

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Asadali

Jan 11, 2015 02:51am

It really worth to watch to know what is the matuarity level in india.

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Krish

Jan 11, 2015 03:29am

PK doing well in Pakistan ! why I am not surprised.

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Ali

Jan 11, 2015 03:30am

pk is not less than a best movie . It should mast get success all over the world without any doubt . Amir khan has proved that he is the real king of bollywood not Shahrukh Khan who is over-ranked . Amin is really a true star .

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Ram Narayanan

Jan 11, 2015 03:41am

Clearly in India, a talented person from ANY religion can succeed. This is secularism at its best.

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Sunil USA

Jan 11, 2015 03:51am

@Akhtar Waar ran only in Pakistan . PK is internally acclaimed movie !!!!!

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Indian Dalit

Jan 11, 2015 04:10am

@Dishum, don't be jealous they had lot of real success in eradicating the problem, War was a representation of daily life of their officers. Unlike our security forces (who took 3 days to kill Mumbai attackers) they wiped out terrorists pretty fast, examples include Karachi airport attack etc.

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Ali

Jan 11, 2015 05:11am

@Dishum according to ur ministers pk was also sponsored by our establishment, so no need of it :D

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Ali

Jan 11, 2015 05:14am

Waar and pk , both are of different genre , I dnt know why people are comparing them

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Rajiv

Jan 11, 2015 05:20am

Funny for some, how a conspiracy movie (Waar) about a fictional RAW agent is 1000 times better than a movie (PK) which highlights the bigotry of religion and fraudsters. Some people are still stuck in the rut, don't want to get out and rot in there.

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Chanakya

Jan 11, 2015 05:23am

Make money not war.

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KafirMusafir

Jan 11, 2015 05:47am

@navas :: Yes, Rajkumar Hirani is a Sindhi director whose family left Pakistan when he was 14 and settled in Nagpur, India.

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Rajkumar

Jan 11, 2015 05:52am

Wow, this section is full of indian trolls...

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Simran Kaur

Jan 11, 2015 06:22am

Just three questions to Chopra & Hirani : (1) How come the alien, after landing in Rajasthan, speaks Bhojpuri, a language which is not spoken in that State? And why Bhojpuri, among all the languages...Is it because people should not bother to understand dialogues of the movie? (2) Why does the alien have to eat and chew a paan each time he speaks a dialogue....Is it again because the people should not bother to try to understand dialogues becuase of the simultaneous chewing of paan & talking a dialogue? (3) Is a single phone call from Delhi so important for a Pakistan embassy staff in Europe that they all leave their desks and attend to the phone call from Delhi? Is this not absurd?

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Abdul kadir

Jan 11, 2015 07:22am

@Akhtar Thousand time better but people could not understand.

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Concerned citizen

Jan 11, 2015 10:14am

@Ayesha narrow mindedness only reflects diseased mind. Give credit where it's due. Waar is a great movie in its own right but no comparison to PK.

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Luke Furtado

Jan 11, 2015 10:24am

22 crore is the highest movie gross in Pakistan ?? Do they pay 50 paise for a ticket down there ???

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Jan 11, 2015 10:37am

@Ayesha Have you even seen the movie PK? If you have seen both you wont comment this.

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Sandeep

Jan 11, 2015 12:56pm

Pakistan has always been an enigma for me. On the one hand there is a die hard hatred and enemity towards India and on the other hand almost all Hindi movies are being released in their theatres. Many of them are superhits. Even many Indian TV channels like Star+ and Zee are being watched and are popular. Hindi film songs are routinely played in the marriages. Even when the Hindi films were banned, all the pirated VHS/DVDs of them were freely available. It is difficult to comprehend this dichotomy.

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NAS

Jan 11, 2015 01:40pm

Waar wins Hands Down

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Abdulla

Jan 11, 2015 02:21pm

@Simran Kaur Its a movie watch it again to find answers to ur questions

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Abdul Malik

Jan 11, 2015 02:39pm

LOL ' Inches closer to beating Waar' So Waar did business of INR 600 Crores + ?

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Shara

Jan 11, 2015 03:20pm

@Ahmed well said Ahmed bhai.

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raja hindustani

Jan 11, 2015 03:32pm

@Simran Kaur : Madam, I suggest you to watch the movie first. Please don't be judgmental even before watching the movie.

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Noora

Jan 11, 2015 03:52pm

Another fact : Raj kumar hirani is the Director of this movie. Raj Kumar hirani's dad migrated from Sindh during 1947 when he was 14. So his dad belonged to sindh which is part of Pakistan.

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imran ghori

Jan 11, 2015 04:09pm

Aamir khan rock in pk...

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Jan 12, 2015 06:08am

@Abdul Malik They are comparing PK's Pakistan earnings of 18 Crores PKR with WAAR's Pakistan earnings of 22 Crores PKR

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Satyameva Jayate

Jan 12, 2015 06:41am

@Ayesha - Yes. Good Theory. Conspiracy Theory.

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Satyameva Jayate

Jan 12, 2015 06:45am

@Ayesha - Ms. Ayesha Khawaja, have you even watched PK, or are just imagining things?

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Gaurav

Jan 12, 2015 08:12am

Some are saying aamir's father migrated from sindh,Pakistan(when there was no Pakistan)..Well he migrated in India and his son amir khan is now a superstar(because of india) is targeting religions that is called freedom. Which is possible in india only.

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Gp65

Jan 12, 2015 08:42am

@hamza No. PK does not discourage paganism. It exposes intermediaries of God who exploit religion for their own purposes. Since this was an Indian movie it talked about fake babas. But Pakistan has equal number of these wrong numbers. People like Amir Liaqat immediately come to mind, not to mention mullahs who preach hate in Friday khutbas.

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Gp65

Jan 12, 2015 08:46am

@Luke Furtado that to is 22crore PKR or around 15 crore Indian rupees. Reason is there are a total of around only 200 cinema halls in Pakistan. Compare that to one forge Kgan releases which hardly releases in south but still gets simultaneous opening on around 4000 screens.

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Gp65

Jan 12, 2015 08:51am

@Noora His father belonged to British India NOT Pakistan

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Payal

Jan 12, 2015 10:02am

@Abdul Malik The article refers to sales in Pakistani, not globally. PK has made 18 crores in Pakistan in 4 days and Waar did 22 crores overall till today. I have watched Waar and I really liked it though it was more of hatred and propaganda throughout the film. PK is class apart, more about opening your minds. Both movies are a class in their own segments, so does not make sense comparing.

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Arthik

Jan 12, 2015 10:53am

@Noora why did he migrated?..lolz

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Raju`

Jan 12, 2015 11:03am

@Ahmed where was the comedy?

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jay patel

Jan 12, 2015 11:06am

The big question is - will Pakistanis take this subject without inferiority against Hindus?

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charu

Jan 12, 2015 11:24am

@Sandeep : Indian cinema is a guilty pleasure in Pakistan ....just like watching Pakistani serials is for us. My Deeply nationalist indian brother hates it when I drool over those enigmatic eyes of Fawad Khan...sigh he's married !

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Akbaruddin

Jan 12, 2015 11:57am

@Luke Furtado Seems so. In India a movie which does business of 20 crore is considered as super flop. A movie with big star should at least earn 100 crore just to save face. PK is 300 crore movie.

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Abdul Malik

Jan 12, 2015 12:28pm

@Payal PKR 18 crores is the business a time pass movie does in a small town over the weekend in India.

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Pankaj

Jan 12, 2015 02:54pm

@Simran Kaur : He holds hands of a "bhojpuri" woman in the brothel hence he speaks bhojpuri

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Satyameva Jayate

Jan 12, 2015 03:04pm

@Noora - So, because all Muhajirs were born in India, Muhajirs belong to India :)

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VINOD

Jan 12, 2015 06:29pm

@Ayesha,Ayesha, Ayesha Please get above these petty remarks. If a Hollywood.... film does great all over the world is there any thing to feel jay; think...... we are talking about fine arts.

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desi guy

Jan 13, 2015 12:27am

Amir Khan films raked in 2200 crores! It would be nice if he donated 1000 crores to india and 1000 crores to Pakistan and 10crores to me! He can keep the rest!

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Teja mein hoon, mark idhar hai

Jan 13, 2015 01:02am

I personally think PK is overrated. There are soo many other movies with a similar message. Oh My God being one of them. PK's story lost the plot after the interval. Sarfaraz called the Pakistani embassy everyday? What nonsense. Why couldn't he just look her up on Facebook? Geez

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Asim

Jan 13, 2015 09:25am

I loved this movie PK.... With Pakistan from Love......

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Asim

Jan 13, 2015 09:29am

@desi guy His movies RAKED 2200 Crore... doesn't necessarily mean he got home with 2200 crore in all....

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Shahrukh

Jan 13, 2015 05:29pm

@Ahmed Ayesha has a fair argument. The story of PK is nothing new, rather recently Oh my God had a similar message and a far better movie. The over-hype is an added element, one which is expected. She is giving credit where it is due, i.e. a domestic movie with far better originality rather than a movie which has a strong message but nonetheless is over-hyped. Thought on a personal note, it is a bit disappointing that domestic movies are not being given the credit they are due. It is a trend that needs to be changed. It is not an anti-indian trend, rather is a pragmatic approach taken in a plethora of countries i.e. UK support British Film Industry, France promotes French film industry, even Ireland promotes domestic movies over Hollywood.

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