First weekend performance of latest release

Such was the state of 3 releases of last week, 'Unns', 'Rehguzar' and 'Janani', that except for a limited number of websites and newspapers, the films didn't even get a review, let aside be hailed or thrashed. There was a complete disinterest from both media as well as the audience which spelt doom for the films on the very first show of the release. Coming on limited prints, the films are total washout and stand to be trade disasters!

Last week's movies

Both the films released a week earlier, 'Vivah' and 'Apna Sapna Money Money', are proving to be earners at the box office. Having said that, the surprising part is that 'Vivah' is being hailed as a hit ever since it released while ASMM is merely being termed as an average/above average earner. Well, the fact is that both the films are more or less close to each other, though 'Vivah' does have an edge as indicated in collections. 'Vivah' has done well to earn as much as 5 crore while being released at less than 200 prints. Though not exceptional by any means, the total is certainly quite good when one looks at the fact that there was doom being predicted for the film before its release. In Mumbai, the film took home a respectable 1 crore, Delhi was second best with 35 lakhs while Pune brought in 25 lakhs. Enjoying a decent response from the public, a few more prints have been added in the second week and with near to nil competition in the current week, the film's collections are expected to take only around 15%-25% fall in the second week.

On the other hand ASMM, which came at almost double the print count of 'Vivah' had a 8.5 crore opening week! For a movie riding on Riteish Deshmukh's shoulders and directed by someone [Sangeeth Sivan] who was labeled as a 'sex film maker' after 'Kya Kool Hain Hum', it was quite a healthy beginning. Highlight of the film's success was patronizing by even family audience since the film did promise a fun filled outing. In Mumbai and Delhi, the collections just missed touching the 2 crore and 1 crore mark respectively while Delhi NCR was close to 40 lakhs. The film is already a success and in case the film follows the industry trend of weekly falls in collections, it should be on way to be termed as at least a semi-hit soon! Just like 'No Entry' that had a huge starcast and benefited everyone from its success last year, the same should be the case with ASMM too which has at least 10 principal characters benefiting from the film!

Third release of the week, 'Deadline', is a trade disaster and went completely unnoticed. With a mere 20 lakhs first week total on a limited release, the film has barely managed to enter the second week with a few prints. While Mumbai only had around 10 lakhs coming in, Delhi was extremely poor with just 1.5 lakhs. A reasonably decent effort going unnoticed due to bad release and hype.

From the past

'Umrao Jaan' has turned out to be a mother of all disasters for a mega movie with a major starcast. If first week was heart-stopping [literally!] with only 6 crore coming in, second week was horribly shocking with an addition of only 1 crore, which translates into a 80% fall. By falling from 1 crore to 5 lakhs, Mumbai may as well have seen the mightiest fall that the city has ever witnessed in history of Bollywood! Even at Delhi, the collections slid down from 60 lakhs to 10 lakhs, hence confirming that the film has been a colossal failure! Except for the fact that audience had 'decided' to give the film a cold shoulder weeks before the film was actually slated for release, there is no other reason that why the film didn't even take a face saving start? It is one matter to open well and then be rejected by the audience and another to not open at all, let alone benefit or get hurt by the word of mouth!

In the 4th week, 'Don' took another 50% drop and got 3 crores added to its 45 crore total. Standing at 48 crores, it is yet another huge success story for SRK while Farhan Akhtar has finally got an all-India hit to his credit. On the other hand 'Jaan-E-Mann' fell further by 65% and has now reached a stage where it would be wise to come out with the film's original DVDs and VCDs. Running at exactly the same number of prints as 'Don', it managed to add only 1 crore to become a 26 crore earner so far! After 50 lakhs coming in last week, 'Lage Raho Munabhai' still managed to enjoy a 35 lakh week run to bring its total to 69.5 lakhs.

In the future

First week record of 28 crores set by 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' 15 weeks back is all set to be challenged coming Friday as 'Dhoom 2' releases. A popcorn entertainer for all age groups, it looks highly exciting and should see a terrific opening. Though KANK was certainly helped by a 5 day weekend factor, if the film turns out to be as stupendous on stunts as the promos indicate, then 'Dhoom 2' is a clear BIG winner all the way!

Though there have been stray talks of Abhishek-Aishwarya 'jodi' being jinxed, it is all baseless for three reasons. a) The jinx factor is hardly a scientific explanation for the merits (or the lack of it) of a film, b) Majority of audience hardly cares if they have to watch the same 'jodi' again if the film sounds exciting enough [which wasn't in the case of 'Umrao Jaan' but certainly is in case of 'Dhoom 2'] and c) Last and certainly the least, if this really pleases those who believe in jinxes, the fact is that Abhi and Ash are not paired opposite each other in 'Dhoom 2'!