Kunal Kemmu's Vibe opened in theatres today to a soft Day 1, with trackers reporting figures ranging from roughly Rs 1.64 to 1.8 crore net in India, and occupancy sitting between 10 and 13 percent across major cities. The number is unmistakably weak for a film headlined by Kemmu and marking Preity Zinta's big-screen comeback — but it was still enough to beat Kareena Kapoor Khan's Daayra, which opened the same day, by more than Rs 35 lakh.

How weak was Vibe's opening, exactly?

The numbers vary depending on which tracker you check, which is worth being upfront about rather than picking one figure and presenting it as definitive. Sacnilk put Day 1 net collection at Rs 1.8 crore across 3,194 shows. Bollywood Hungama's live tracker landed on Rs 1.64 crore. An earlier same-day estimate from Zeebiz, taken before the day's numbers had fully settled, had the film at a lower Rs 0.73 crore net and Rs 0.86 crore gross across 2,536 shows, with 10% occupancy. Filmibeat's running total through 8:45 PM had the film at roughly Rs 1.01 crore net and Rs 1.19 crore gross at that point in the day, before final Day 1 numbers were tallied.

That spread between trackers is larger than usual, which likely reflects how estimates get revised throughout release day as more show data comes in — early-afternoon snapshots tend to undercount a film's eventual full-day total, especially before evening and night shows are factored in. Regional occupancy data adds more texture: Delhi NCR recorded the strongest numbers at 13% across 440 shows, while Pune, Kolkata, and Hyderabad each sat around 11%. None of those figures suggest a film that's connecting with a wide opening-day audience, regardless of which tracker's total collection number ends up being most accurate.

How does this compare to Daayra, its same-day rival?

Vibe wasn't releasing into a quiet week — Daayra, reuniting Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran under director Meghna Gulzar, opened in theatres the exact same day, setting up a direct box office comparison trade press leaned into immediately. Both films opened to identical 10% morning occupancy, giving them essentially the same starting point. By evening, Filmibeat's live tracking had Vibe ahead, with roughly Rs 1.01 crore net collected by 8:45 PM against Daayra's approximately Rs 63 lakh net over the same window — putting Vibe ahead by more than Rs 35 lakh at that point in the day. Early Day 1 predictions from trade analysts had actually expected Daayra to underperform specifically, projecting a disappointing Rs 80-90 lakh for the Meghna Gulzar film against a slightly stronger Rs 90 lakh to Rs 1 crore estimate for Vibe — a prediction that broadly held up once the day's numbers came in.

What are critics actually saying about the film?

Unlike a lot of same-day box office coverage, there's now a genuine published review to reference rather than just pre-release buzz. The Free Press Journal gave Vibe 2.5 stars, praising Kunal Kemmu and Sparsh Shrivastava for making the film's first half genuinely watchable, while flagging a stretched second half and uneven writing as the reasons the overall experience falls short of its potential. That's a fairly measured, mixed verdict rather than an outright pan — consistent with how most pre-release coverage described the film's test screenings and early reactions, which leaned toward "enjoyable but uneven" rather than either a strong recommendation or a dismissal.

A 2.5-star review paired with a soft opening-day number is a genuinely tricky combination for a film to recover from commercially. Mixed reviews rarely kill a film's box office run outright, but they also don't tend to generate the kind of urgent word-of-mouth that turns a slow Friday into a stronger Saturday or Sunday — the exact dynamic that's helped films like Hanuman Ansh and Mirzapur build far past their own openings this year. For a film that was carrying real promotional weight around Preity Zinta's big-screen comeback specifically, a soft opening also means that storyline doesn't get the box office validation it might have hoped for on Day 1, even if her performance itself factors positively into how the film is eventually remembered.

Why might a film with this cast open this soft?

A few factors were already in play before a single review or box office number landed. Vibe entered release as an original espionage-comedy premise rather than a sequel, remake, or adaptation of existing IP — unlike several other recent releases that opened with a built-in audience already familiar with the story. It's also releasing into an unusually crowded and competitive stretch of the calendar: Mirzapur: The Movie was still holding strong weeks into its run, meaning screens and audience attention that might otherwise have gone toward a new release were still being absorbed by an older one that refused to fade. A same-day clash with another major star vehicle in Daayra only compounds that pressure further, splitting whatever opening-day curiosity existed across two originals instead of concentrating it on one.

What's still unconfirmed about the final Day 1 total?

Given how much individual tracker estimates diverged throughout the day, treat any single number cited here as a snapshot rather than the final, settled figure — box office trackers typically converge on a more consistent number only after a day or two of revisions. What's consistent across every source, though, is the overall shape of the story: a soft opening, mixed critical reception, and a narrow win over a same-day rival that was itself expected to underperform. Whether Vibe can build on that narrow advantage over the weekend, the way several of 2026's smaller films have managed, is the more important question than today's exact decimal point.

For more on how this year's Hindi box office has been shaped by openings versus staying power, see our coverage of Toxic's dramatic post-opening collapse, our pre-release Vibe guide, and Haiwaan's weak Akshay Kumar start.