Vikram Bhatt's horror film "Raaz 3" has not attracted more viewers into the movie halls but has also surpassed trade analyst expectations by collecting Rs 552.5 million in its first week.

Emraan Hashmi, Bipasha Basu and Esha Gupta starrer was expected to collect Rs 500 million at the Indian box office in its first week but it collected more than that. The movie has emerged as Vishesh Films, Emraan and Bipasha's biggest opener ever.

The first week's collection of "Raaz 3" was bigger than the lifetime collection of several Emraan Hashmi's films till now. On Thursday it collected Rs 36.5 million taking the first week total to Rs 552.5 million.

"#Raaz3 collected Rs 55.25 cr nett in Week 1, which is *higher* than the lifetime business of several Emraan Hashmi hits. Wow!," Trade analyst and film critic Taran Adarsh tweeted on his micro-blogging site Twitter.

"#Raaz3 collects 55.25 cr nett in Week 1. Bhatts, @emraanhashmi & @bipsluvurself 's biggest opener to date," he said.

"#Murder2 1st Week 36.5 cr nett .. #TheDirtyPicture 1st Week 52.5 cr nett .. #Jannat2 1st Week 35.55 cr nett .. #Raaz3 1st Week 55.25 cr nett," Adarsh tweeted.

"#Raaz3 ranks prominently amongst the top openers of 2012. The film has fared exceptionally well at single screens and multiplexes, both."

Bhatt's third installment of the "Raaz" series initially opened to mixed reviews but slowly gained excellent business in the weekdays as well.

Although, the business is seeing a slight fall each day, it raked in Rs 60.2 million on Monday, Rs 50.5 million on Tuesday, Rs 45.5 million on Wednesday and Rs 36.5 million on Thursday.

"Raaz 3" is expected to face a tough competition from Anurag Basu's "Barfi!", which released on Friday. "Barfi" has got positive reviews from critics and had a terrific opening in morning shows at multiplexes. 

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