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Aamir Khan starrer comedy-drama "3 Idiots" created a record by earning around Rs.93 crore (Rs.930 million/$20 million) in its opening weekend. Reliance BIG Entertainment, which is the distributor of "3 Idiots", released the movie with about 2,000 prints across 40 countries.

Loosely based on Chetan Bhagat's bestseller "Five Point Someone", the film has been produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and directed by Rajkumar Hirani.

"Response has been overwhelming from all over the world. Aamir, Raju and I knew from the responses earlier on that people liked the film but this is something else? We have got reports from places like Australia that they have reduced 'Avatar' shows and increased ours," said Chopra in a statement.

Released on Dec 25, its box office collection has beaten the initial earnings of another Aamir starrer "Ghajini", considered Hindi cinema's highest grosser till date, with 30 percent more earnings till Sunday night.

"'3 Idiots' is the highest grossing Hindi film ever in Australia on its opening weekend. Similarly in the US, I have been given to understand that '3 Idiots' would be highest ever for a Hindi film," he added.

The paid previews of the movie also garnered over Rs.9 crore worldwide, above those of the paid preview collections of "Ghajini" that was Rs.7 crore globally.

It also stars R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani and Kareena Kapoor in pivotal roles.