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By JENNIFER HOPFINGER

CHICAGO - The coming-of-age comedy, 3 Idiots, starring Aamir Khan, has set a U.S. box-office record for Bollywood films. Since its December 23rd release, it has earned $4.8 million from nearly 120 American theaters. The film collected $2.2 million during its opening weekend here and ranked 12th at the American box office that week. Worldwide, it has earned $52 million so far—also a box-office record for Indian movies—and it’s still showing to packed theaters in its domestic market. Indian films gross considerably less than American films because ticket prices in India are much cheaper.

3 Idiots, which tells the story of three friends struggling at a competitive university, breaks the previous Bollywood records of $49 million in worldwide revenue—also set by an Aamir Khan-starrer, the psychological thriller Ghajini, which released in December 2008—and $3.7 million in U.S. revenue—set in 2007 by Om Shanti Om, a campy spoof about the Indian film industry, starring Shahrukh Khan.

Shahrukh Khan’s films have historically dominated the U.S. market—and he may reclaim the top spot here soon. His upcoming film, My Name Is Khan, which is set in the U.S. and was filmed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, is expected to release on February 12. The film—about a man with Asperger syndrome who is wrongly accused of terrorism—is being distributed in North America by Fox Searchlight Pictures, which distributed the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006) and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001), both starring Shahrukh Khan, are among the all-time highest-grossing Bollywood films in the U.S.

Actor Salman Khan, the third of the “big Khans,” as the trio is called, is also poised to take a crack at the record. His upcoming film, Veer, an epic love story about a legendary Indian warrior, is set to release on January 22.

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January 4, 2010