So, Bollywoodhungama posted the weekend overseas box office figures, broken down by country, with screen counts included as well.  Some interesting things in there.

(also, admire my pun in the header image!  “Two days, two players, one game.”  How perfect is that for another Bajirao vs Dilwale weekend report!)

First, Bajirao continues to do awesome business overseas.  It opened on more screens overseas than even Dilwale, so although they ended up having the same per screen average, Bajirao leaped ahead.  Currently, Dilwale is on only 28 screens in America (two of them within 5 miles of me!  Truly, I live in the promised land), and Bajirao is on 302.  Dilwale is doing about twice the business per screen that Bajirao is, but it doesn’t matter, because with 302 screens, there is no way it can close that gap.

But that’s just in America.  In Canada, the screen gap is much smaller, only about double the number for Bajirao, but the per screen gap is smaller as well.  Bajirao has a major lead this weekend, and a slight lead over all.  The same is true in Australia.

In the UK and Ireland, Dilwale has more screens than Bajirao still, and about twice the overall box office, although Bajirao did better this weekend in particular.   In Malaysia, Bajirao is barely playing while Dilwale is riding high (3 screens to 39 and 6 crore to 15 lacs).  In New Zealand, Dilwale only has half as many screens as Bajirao (although it has twice the box office).  And in Germany, Dilwale is playing on 54 screens and Bajirao is no where.

So, what do we learn here?  Well, first, everyone should live near me because apparently I am in the heartland of Dilwale fans.  Third, Germany continues to be in love with SRK to an almost scary degree, as it has been since 2003 when K3G was broadcast on state TV.

But overall, the message is that Bajirao is a cross-over film, hitting the general audience, while Dilwale is hitting the hardcore diaspora heartlands-UK and other parts of the commonwealth, and Malaysia.  Dilwale is a traditional Indian Masala film, the kind of thing you can watch when you get homesick or just want something nice to see with your family.  Bajirao is something you can go to with your non-diaspora friends and co-workers, something that is “different” but not too different.  And, based on how the screen numbers match with the box office, the distributors predicted this kind of divide and selected where to send their prints accordingly.

Oh, also, Wazir is doing better overseas than at home, which makes sense, because that kind of plot rather than star driven film usually does.

(Wazir review here, bullet point summary here, and full synopsis starting here.  Bajirao synopsis starting here.  Dilwale summary starting here)