Mumbai: Encouraging response to the much-awaited big-budget releases-Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 on the Diwali weekend has provided some respite to exhibitors who were struggling with a dry spell of no fresh release for a few weeks.

According to early reports from the trade circuit, the combined collection of these two releases for the last weekend (Friday to Sunday) was Rs. 231.4 crore. While Singham Again made box-office collections of Rs. 121.2 crore, Bhool Bhulaiyaa collected Rs. 110.2 crore, they said.

"After a long period, two big films released in theatres on the same day. The festival period provided the much-needed boost required at the box office in terms of strong collections," said Girish Wankhade, a movie trade analyst.

These films, however, are not competing at the box office, he said. "Screens were not proportionately shared between these two films. The ratio of screen count between the two films is 60:40 with Singham Again receiving 60% of the total screens..."

Singham Again is distributed by PVR Inox Pictures, the distribution arm of multiplex giant PVR Inox, which runs 1,747 screens. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is distributed by AA Films, which is owned by Anil Thadani, a pan-India distributor. Besides higher share of screens and huge star cast, the scale and production quality of the Singham cop universe or franchise have worked in its favour and resulted in higher collections. Due to this, according to trade analysts, the budget of Singham Again is estimated to be in the range of Rs. 300-Rs. 350 crore, while Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is made at a cost of Rs. 150 crore.

Film distributor and trade analyst Shaaminder Malik said: "Though the opening weekend of both these big-budget films have generated good collections, one must also bear in mind that collections of both these films on Monday and Tuesday will be the litmus test."

Collections had dropped for both on Sunday after they secured high interest from audiences for the first two days, he said.

Exhibitors will decide on increasing or decreasing shows of these films based on how they fare on Monday and Tuesday, analysts said. A trade analyst who wished to be unnamed said: "At present, there is a drop in collections of both films on Sunday. So, exhibitors will not favour any one of these two films immediately." He added that through word-of-mouth publicity it will be clear only by either Tuesday or Wednesday as to which film will get more shows in the coming weeks.

Interestingly, amid their release, these two films have successfully sold their streaming or digital rights.