First weekend performance of latest release

HONEYMOON TRAVELS PVT. LTD. was the sole release of the film and that benefited it to an extent that the audience didn't have to worry about too many films to choose from in the Friday gone by. EKLAVYA, the film which released a week earlier, hardly found much patronage into its second week and hence made HTPL to have a safe opening weekend.

The film's opening was centered on the 50% mark and that can be considered as decent, if not very good, considering the fact that the film came with an unconventional theme and didn't boast of any star power per se. Also, the film was released at a substantial number of prints and hence the audience was divided over the number of shows that were being played across numerous multiplexes. The film picked up steam over the weekend and collections improved on Saturday and Sunday.

Director Kagti tried doing something genuinely different and succeeded to a good extent, though much better results would be expected from in her next film. Amongst actors, Kay Kay Menon and Raima Sen have been unanimously hailed as the ones who have stolen the show though there is not a single actor who hasn't performed with his heart and soul in the project.

HTPL never pretended to be a blockbuster and the box office performance also indicates the same. A small film by a debutant director, it opened to more or less good reviews while the audience reaction also ranges from average to nice to good, hence promising to make HTPL a small success at the least.

Last week's movies

Last week, it was mentioned here that ".....after a good start, EKLAVYA seems to be on a shaky ground w.r.t. a long run at the box office. A fall is very much on the cards and at the moment, the film appears to be en route to an overall run ranging from average to above average." With the first week's collections being out, this very much seems to be the case as the film gathered only 14 crores at the box office.

When one looks at the budget of the film, 14 crores seems to be a good total but the way film was hyped beyond expectations and also over publicized at all quarters, a sustained box office performance was expected from it. On the contrary the film started showing cracks from the deadly Monday and by the time the second weekend came, the writing was clear on the wall that the film would be having a limited run.

The film did reasonably well at Mumbai with 3 crores coming in while Delhi was decent too at 1.3 crores. Pune was good at 80 lakhs while Ahmedabad was also not far behind at 70 lakhs. But as things stand now, the film is en route to 60-70% fall in the second week hence making even 25 crores a difficult target to achieve for EKLAVYA.

From the past

BLACK FRIDAY held on to some extent in the second week as it fell by 60% but still got home another 1 crore+ to its total. When one looks at the break up of collections across the cities, the film has held on best in Mumbai while in places like Bangalore and Delhi, it has taken a big fall. Standing at 4 crores, the film has entered the profit zone and should soon find patronage in the DVD circuits. And yes, these DVDs should be special since they are original uncut versions unlike the pirated software available for 2 years that has more than 45 minutes of the film's footage edited.

Special mention for Kay Kay who seems to be an exciting zone of his career as on one set of screens his BLACK FRIDAY is running while on others, he is jumping around to Vishal Shekhar's dance song of the year so far - 'Sajna Vaari Vaari'.

UNDERTRIAL showed a complete crash in the second week as after collecting 40 lakhs in week 1, it could only add 4 lakhs more hence resulting in a 90% drop. A box office disaster, it must have left its producer disheartened as he had ventured into telling a daringly new story.

After managing to hang on in its second week, TRAFFIC SIGNAL showed a mighty fall in its 3rd week as it fell by more than 75%. This kind of crash was quite unexpected for the film but as of now, it certainly seems to be ending its theatrical run. Adding on another 55 lakhs and now standing at close to 8.5 crore, it is average box office success for Madhur Bhandarkar. Will the lure of mega bucks catch up with him too soon and he would aim at making a big budget mega star cast film? He actually may, considering the fact that he now has his Mumbai trilogy behind him.

Collections of SALAAM E ISHQ were a little better than TRAFFIC SIGNAL as it got in 65 lakhs for its investors. At 24 crores, the film should now be aiming at a DVD release. And yes, one would like to look at additional 30 minutes footage of the film that director Nikhil Advani is said to have chopped before the release to make it a 3 hours 30 minutes film! PARZANIA is now more or less out of theaters with 70 lakhs in its kitty.

Meanwhile GURUbhai continues to rock with further 1.5 crores in its 6th week. Due to competition from his dad [EKLAVYA], Abhishek did see a fall of 45% after a negligible fall of 15% in the week prior to it. At 40 crores, the film is now a superhit and gets both Mani Ratnam and Abhishek Bachchan a firm footing in the world of Hindi cinema. On the other hand VIVAH continues to be a success story it is with a mere 15% fall resulting in 50 lakhs more coming in. Rajshris are minting money and with 30 crores in already, the film was still running at 225 screens which is the second highest number of screens after EKLAVYA (450+). Phenomenal.

In the future

Two films belonging to different sense and sensibilities are releasing together this Friday. While NISHABD by RGV has been in news since one year, NEHLLE PE DEHLLA comes relatively unannounced. None of the two films promise a big opening which seems strange, at least in paper, since NISHABD brings back RGV and Big B after SARKAR while NPD stars Sanjay Dutt and Saif Ali Khan who are at the peak of their careers.

Reason? NISHABD comes with an unconventional theme and hence would need very strong word of mouth to be picked up by the audience. At the moment, only hardcore film lovers may venture into the theaters to watch this love story unfold and hence even a 50% opening would be considered quite good.

On the other hand NEHLLE PE DEHLLA could just have been one hilarious film to watch if promoted better and placed well in the market. As of now, there is not much awareness about the film outside Mumbai and hence it will be star power blazing from the bill boards that could fetch it a decent opening. But houseful boards for an entire weekend are ruled out for this debut vehicle of director Ajay Chandok.