The wait is finally over! Yash’s much-awaited Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups has arrived in theatres today, August 26. Directed by Geetu Mohandas, the film stars Yash alongside Kiara Advani, Nayanthara, Huma Qureshi, Tara Sutaria and Rukmini Vasanth, among others. While the film has received mixed reviews from early viewers, the focus has now shifted to its box-office performance. Mounted on a massive scale, Toxic has been released across India in five languages and is expected to draw audiences across different regions.Toxic advance booking creates huge buzzToxic entered the box-office race with strong momentum even before its theatrical release. Advance bookings opened at around 6 am on Friday, August 21, while major national cinema chains began opening their bookings a few hours later. The response was immediate, with audiences rushing to secure tickets across leading online platforms.By Wednesday morning, after five days of advance sales, Toxic had sold more than 15 lakh tickets across the country. The film had also generated close to Rs 50 crore in gross advance bookings for its opening day, setting up strong expectations for Day 1.Interestingly, the Hindi version of the film emerged as a major surprise during the advance-booking period. While the Kannada original led initially, the Hindi dubbed version eventually overtook it in terms of advance gross collections.The Hindi version reportedly collected around Rs 25 crore through advance bookings, while the Kannada version stood at approximately Rs 18 crore. However, the Kannada version continued to record higher occupancy. The strong response to the Hindi release is being linked to Yash’s popularity in North India following the success of the KGF franchise.Can Toxic record a Rs 100 crore opening?With the kind of advance booking and audience excitement surrounding Toxic, the big question is how high its opening day can go.Speaking exclusively to The Economic Times, trade expert Akkshay Rathie said the film has the potential to record a national gross of around Rs 100 crore on Day 1. He pointed to the extraordinary response in Karnataka as well as the momentum across the rest of the country.According to him, "It's looking like a ballistic opening, and especially driven by mass centres, tier 2, tier 3 towns, single screen cinemas, where the numbers are absolutely off the hook. And Karnataka, of course, is leading the charge in a major way, where it could very well bypass the opening numbers of KGF 2 and the other films that have done extremely well there and clock a historic opening day."Karnataka, naturally, is expected to remain one of the biggest contributors. Rathie also suggested that Toxic could potentially surpass the opening numbers achieved by KGF Chapter 2 in the state, putting it in the conversation for a historic opening.However, a massive first day does not automatically guarantee a blockbuster run. The expert stressed, "For these kinds of front-loaded films which are star vehicles designed for an opening, the opening weekend, of course, is extremely crucial because it does the heavy lifting for the movie's recovery, and also it sets the tone and the momentum for the weekdays to go along really well till the next weekend comes along and sees a spike again. So it's critical that this extended weekend does very well for Toxic, does historic numbers."Toxic vs Dhurandhar: Can Yash’s film make history?The box-office conversation around Toxic inevitably brings Dhurandhar into the picture. The films have been compared because of their scale, star power and expectations surrounding their theatrical runs.Toxic was earlier scheduled to arrive alongside Dhurandhar 2 in March before its release date was changed. After subsequent delays, the Yash starrer eventually settled on August 26.The question now is whether Toxic can follow the kind of blockbuster trajectory associated with major recent Hindi releases.He told us, "I don't know if it can break Dhurandhar's records as such, but it will go on to become one of the biggest openers in the history of Indian cinema in recent times purely because of the kind of euphoria and madness there is around Yash, especially after KGF and KGF 2, which were truly historic in their own way."The extended five-day opening weekend will be particularly important. Rathie explained that films built around major stars are often heavily dependent on their opening period. A strong first weekend can help recover a substantial portion of the investment while also creating momentum for the weekdays.For Toxic, sustaining that momentum will ultimately depend on audience word of mouth.Meanwhile, early figures have already started coming in. According to Sacnilk’s early estimates, Toxic had recorded an India net collection of Rs 31.76 crore and an India gross of Rs 37.48 crore from 9,003 shows at the time of the latest update. The final Day 1 figures are yet to be reported.With its massive advance sales, strong Karnataka performance and unexpected traction for the Hindi version, Toxic has made a powerful entry into the box-office race. Stay tuned!