Salman Khan’s 'Sikandar' Opens to Moderate Box Office, Mixed Reviews on Eid 2025:

After a two-year hiatus from Salman Khan’s Eid releases, Sikandar, directed by A.R Murugadoss with Sajid Nadiadwala as producer, looks to break box office records with his returning star power. Sikandar, an action thriller, features Salman Khan alongside Rashmika Mandanna, who is coming off a string of successful hits with Animal and Pushpa 2. Despite high anticipations surrounding the film, only time will tell if it lives up to Salman’s past successes.

Box office earnings for Sikandar during the opening day showed a range from 90% higher to lowest 53% for Khan’s past films, pulling in 26 crore in ticket sales. Though this is a high number for opening day sales, it does not reach the high packed audiences expected from his previous movies.

Sikandar garnered an overall 21.6% occupancy in theaters on March 30, 2025. This was further broken down into the following categories, Morning Shows: 13.76% Afternoon Shows: 24% Evening Shows: 25.08% Night Shows: 23.55%. A good turnout of viewers, but in comparison to Eid releases in the past, such as Tiger 3 (2023) coming in at first with 53.3 crore and Saudi amassing 36.54 the hype for Sikandar may fall a bit flat.

Initially, industry analysts predicted that Sikandar would set new records, possibly putting Salman Khan in the ₹500-crore league. A feat that contemporaties of Salman like Shah Rukh Khan did with Pathaan and Jawan, Sunny Deol with Gadar 2, and even Ranbir Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal with Animal and Chhaava, respectively. In spite of these expectations, the way things stand today, it is evident that Sikandar is not likely to go the way of some of the other recent blockbusters.

Nonetheless, the films star cast comprising Salman Khan and rising star Rashmika Mandanna could help pull it together and only time will tell how good it does economically over the long haul and what impact it will leave in Bollywood’s history.

SIKANDAR REVIEW

A part of Moneycontrol.com review reads, “‘Sikandar’ is defeated in battle due to inadequate acting performances, bland storyline, and a shallow screenplay. The songs have zero impact and the supposed tear-jerkers are not moving. He is extremely liberal with the reel life imagination, making Pradhan a politician who controls everything including the police and migration, to do as he wishes. Salman’s character on the other hand is very one dimensional – just moves from one fight to another with little acting involved.