First weekend performance of latest release
CHAMKU - Bas naam hi kaafi hai - to ensure that the film doesn't even get recognized at the box office, let alone take a fall! The film has failed, and how. The writing was clear on the wall not when the film released at theaters but even before the first shot was canned. For an action film with Bobby Deol in the lead, it must have been pretty imaginative of the makers to finalize a film's title as CHAMKU. Result? A no show which won't run for even an entire week. Ditto for MUKHBIIR which was doomed forever.
C KKOMPANY hasn't done well either and though there was some curiosity about the film when it was announced, as the D-day came closer, sheen started loosing away from the project. Talks centered on other films in the running (PHOONK, ROCK ON) and somehow the push wasn't good enough to result in the film promising a good opening. The film stayed on to be quite lukewarm throughout it's opening weekend and with ROCK ON taking a flying start, it was further pushed into backburner.
Talking about ROCK ON, the film was released on limited shows and took a bumper start all over. After a near 100% opening over the weekend, ROCK ON was 'rock solid' even on the week days and is on it's way to becoming a solid HIT before embarking on yet another high in the second weekend. In a matter of two months, Bollywood has been blessed with two more leading heroes - Farhan Akhtar and Imran Khan. And that's quite a welcome relief for the industry which has been reeling to catch hold of some more saleable names beyond the Khans, Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Shahid Kapoor and Sanjay Dutt amongst a few others.
Last week's movies
Out of PHOONK, MAAN GAYE MUGHALL-E-AZAM and MUMBAI MERI JAAN, only PHOONK has turned out to be a bona fide success. However, PHOONK too did it's maximum business in the first weekend while in days to come, the momentum sliding down. Still, for a film made in 2-3 crores, a total exceeding 6.5 crores is good enough to make it a HIT in the first week itself. With Mumbai being terrific at 1.7 crores and Delhi too fetching 80 lakhs, this is now one of the biggest hits for Ram Gopal Varma when one looks at ROI factor. The film may not run long enough at theaters (it's number of shows are bound to come down in weeks to follow) but it has more than done it's job.
MUMBAI MERI JAAN has been so-so with close to 2.5 crores in it's first week. Released yet again at a small number of prints, the film has done reasonably OK to be at an average runner. In Mumbai, the film fetched close to 1 crore while Delhi was around 40 lakhs. However, unlike AAMIR which went on for a few weeks courtesy strong word of mouth, MUMBAI MERI JAAN is not expected to go through the same route due to plethora of releases week after week.
MAAN GAYE MUGHALL-E-AZAM has been a resounding flop with the film falling short of even touching the 2 crore mark. The word of mouth ranges from negligible to poor which means that the film won't run beyond two weeks. A surprise failure at the box office considering the fact that at one point of time, it was seemingly a safe bet at the box office due to it's comedy theme.
From the past
BACHNA AE HASEENO did reasonably well in it's second week though the fall of 55% was little more than what would have expected from the film considering word of mouth was generally positive. In it's second week, the film collected another 9.5 crores, hence resulting in BACHNA AE HASEENO crossing the 31 crores mark. The film crossed 1.75 crores mark in Mumbai with Delhi bringing another 1.25 crores. After a fiasco called SAAWARIYA, Ranbir now has a success in hand, courtesy Siddharth Anand who now has given three earners in a row after SALAAM NAMASTE and TA RA RUM PUM.
GOD TUSSI GREAT HO has crashed badly though with a 75% fall. It's opening week wasn't superb either which means that a 14 crore total hardly seems flattering. A costly film considering the stars involved and quite a few special effects, it has resulted in losses though not to the extent which would have the distributors fretting. For a dated film, the final total has at least managed to stay away from being embarrassingly low and one has to credit Salman Khan's pull for this.
SINGH IS KINNG is now just a few lakhs away from the 70 crores milestone. A 55% fall in it's third week meant that the film earned another 7.5 crores at the box office. In Mumbai the collections read 80 lakhs though Delhi again managed to top the 1 crore mark. Now it seems like a touch and go for this Akshay Kumar film to break the star's 76 crores total of WELCOME.
In the future
Three films release this weekend as well - A WEDNESDAY, HIJACK and TAHAAN. Out of the three, A WEDNESDAY should take a decent opening only to pick up over the weekend considering the fact that it has fetched great response so far in all the special screenings and the previews which have happened across the country in the fortnight gone by. The film is a tout 100 minutes thriller and should be quite safe for it's investors. On the other hand HIJACK does boast of exciting promos though Shiney Ahuja's pull as an action hero is doubtful. While the opening isn't expected to be anything great, it is left to the film's quality to result in some escalation in ticket sales over the weekend. TAHAAN is a flop from Day one and one wonders what made it's makers confident of releasing it in theaters when a round of festival circuits and a straight release on DVD would have been a better option.
