'My Name Is Khan' sets new box office record in US and Canada

Shahrukh Khan starrer My Name Is Khan has turned out to be the largest weekend grosser Bollywood film ever in North America, recording an estimated USD 1.86 million in the US and Canada.

The movie, directed by Karan Johar averaged a stellar USD 15,500 from 120 theatres across the US and Canada. 

The Fox Searchlight movie opened on Friday with USD 444,000 and rose 65 per cent to USD 734,000 on Saturday. 

It is estimated to dip seven per cent to USD 682,000 today, celebrated across the world as Valentine's Day. 

Monday's 'Presidents' Day' holiday in the US will lead to a four-day debit of more than USD two million, the firm handling promotion and advertising of the film claimed. 

My Name Is Khan also generated the highest per-theatre
average of any film in the Top 20 over the weekend.

The previous record was held by Shahrukh's musical extravaganza 'Om Shanti Om', which grossed USD 1.76 million from 114 theatres over Diwali weekend in 2007. 

The American mainstream media is all praise for the movie which received rave reviews. 

"This is a movie not built for subtlety, but it does tackle a subject American movies have mostly avoided -- that of racial profiling and the plight of Muslim-Americans. 

It also allows Shah Rukh Khan to display his talent to an even wider audience. It's well worth the 162-minute journey," The Hollywood Reporter, an American trade publication of the
entertainment industry, said in its review.

"Without any gimmickry, Khan captures the nervous ticks and emotional barriers that an afflicted individual must battle against daily. It's a showy performance but in the right kind of way," The Hollywood Reporter said.

"At its best My Name Is Khan,' set mainly in America, is an affecting fairy tale about the perils of goodness," The New York Times said in its review of the movie.

"'Khan' is one of a handful of Hindi films ('New York,' 'Kurbaan') about Indians living in a paranoid, post-9/11 America, and there's something fascinating about looking at this country through a Bollywood lens, even when the story is a kind of fairy tale," the daily said.

"Skillfully directed by Karan Johar and with an evocative score by Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy, 'Khan' jerks tears with ease, while teaching lessons about Islam and tolerance," NYT added.

Variety, one of the most noted film magazines in the US, said in its review: "This riotously overstuffed and enormously enjoyable drama races forward with incredible drive." 

Terming MNIK as "a sweeping epic in the melodramatic Bollywood manner", The Los Angeles Times said the movie emerges as a potent, engaging and timely entertainment. 

"My Name Is Khan is a potent, energetic heart-tugger and Khan and Kajol, major Bollywood stars, are highly appealing and equal to the demand of their emotion-charged roles," the daily said in its review.