First weekend performance of latest release

One thing that continued to puzzle me over the last few weeks was a lackluster promotion and hype building around HAT TRICK. After all it came from one of the biggest film making house of the country, UTV, had a director of the caliber of Milan Luthria at the helm, boasted of an A star cast and last but not the least had its theme built around the World Cup cricket. With so many factors going in favor of the film, it was imperative that a lot of hype and hoopla should have been built around the film for at least 6 weeks, if not less.

Surprisingly, the makers opted for a late splurge in the promotion (which didn't quite happen) and the results were there to be seen. The film's opening has been way below mark and at best could be termed as below average. Mixed reviews for the film didn't help the cause either as the verdict ranged from delightful to very poor. Now this was quite surprising too since the film did boast of an interesting concept and definitely didn't deserve some scathing comments as it received from certain sections of the media.

Coming to the 'aam junta', sadly there hasn't been much heard from that front since they hardly visited the theaters in hordes to come up with any sort of word of mouth. As of now the film seems to be on a very shaky ground; especially with NAMASTEY LONDON arriving in the coming Friday. It would be quite a miracle if the film even manages to be an average earner.

Second release of the film was JUST MARRIED and in this case too the promotion was hardly inspiring. In fact it followed a trend that was completely reverse of HAT TRICK. In the case of JUST MARRIED, the film's promotion kick started on a uproarious mode but as the film's release date came closer, it stopped making any news.

In fact the promotion of the film virtually came to a standstill hence leaving one wondering if producers PNC had laid down their arms being pretty sure that after SALAAM E ISHQ and HONEYMOON TRAVELS PVT. LTD., audience won't really be interested in watching a film about married couples.

Coupled with this the average merits of this Meghna Gulzar film and the outcome was crystal clear in the opening weekend. Welcomed by near empty houses, JUST MARRIED doesn't have anything going in it's favor from box office perspective in spite of lovable acts by Fardeen-Esha and Kirron Kher-Satish Shah.

Less said about the third release of the week, the better. Released by ADLABS, EIK DASTTAK was a little known movie that wasn't even known to any except for the cast and crew and those who had invested their money in the film. A complete non starter and a looser.

Last week's movies

RED, WATER, 1971 and SARHAD PAAR released in the week gone by and each of them have got for themselves a FLOP tag. In short, a a disastrous week for Bollywood. Collecting a mere 5 crore between them [RED - 3 crores, WATER - 1 crore, 1971 - 30 lakhs, SARHAD PAAR - 60 lakhs] inspite of playing at 650 cinemas collectively, they have turned out to be mega box office disappointments.

RED had its best collections coming from Mumbai [45 lakhs] but that too is hardly a number to cheer about. WATER was second best with 20 lakhs coming from Mumbai while both 1971 and SARHAD PAAR couldn't even touch 10 lakhs each in the city. Extremely poor. As things stand today, the films have been discounted from majority of cinemas in the second week and hence more than 80% fall for each of them is pretty much on the cards as the second week comes to a close.

For Vikram Bhatt - Aftab Shivdasani combo, this is yet another 'zor ka jhatka' even as the actor performed well yet again with his favorite director. Vikram showed style and sparks of gripping direction at places but the predictable script let him down. On the other hand WATER that made crores in Hollywood didn't create any splash in the country of its origin.

From the past

NISHABD crashed completely in its second week and that's a pity because the wrong promotion and bad run of Ram Gopal Varma have proved to be the film's undoing rather than any other reason. After a 5 crore opening week, the film got home just 1 crore more in the second week hence leading to a washout. What seemed to be at least a coverage last week has been proven wrong as the film is hardly in the running in its second week. The promotion of the film has stopped and the makers seem to have accepted the fate of the film.

With Delhi's collections reading best at 20 lakhs, this Amitabh Bachchan-Jiah Khan film has been rejected by both the masses and the classes hence reaffirming the point once again that it is hard to play with the image of Amitabh Bachchan. It happened with BOOM earlier, it has happened with NISHABD too now.

NEHLLE PE DEHLLA has been a mother of all disasters as it is hard to imagine a film of either Sanjay Dutt or Saif Ali Khan which has disappeared in such a hurry from the theaters. Agreed that the film's original DVDs were out on the day of the release but still a 90% + fall is hard to imagine. From a 3 crore opening, the film fell to mere 25 lakhs in the second week hence making it one of the biggest disasters of the year.

With all the mayhem surrounding it, the only film that is only gaining from strength to strength is HONEYMOON TRAVELS PVT. LTD. After a 50% fall in the second week, it showed an improvement in its standing as it fell only by around 40% in spite of approximate 6 new film releases surrounding it. Getting home another 1.75 crores more, the film has now crossed the 10.5 crore mark and is aiming to touch the 13 crore mark.

A semi-hit now, the film is a winner for all practical purpose since it came sans any star power and is still the preferred choice of the movie goers. The word of mouth has been decent too that is resulting in consistent collections for the film.

EKLAVYA has fallen by another 70% in it's 4th week and with 30 lakhs more and a total reading 19 crores, now is the time for the film's original DVDs to be out. Now that's something that has been already done by GURU as after a successful run of 9 weeks (and still doing decent at select screens), the film is out on DVDs. At 41.5 crores, the film should end it run at 42 crores in a long run. On the other hand VIVAH may wait for some more weeks for the DVDs to be out as even in its 18th week, it has managed to collect in the excess of 25 lakhs, a feat that has hardly been accomplished by any film in the recent times.

In the future

Two contrasting films release this Friday, Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif starring NAMASTEY LONDON and Irrfan Khan-Tabu starrer THE NAMESAKE. Promotion for former has ranged from being average to excellent and in current scenario it is touching upon the latter hence giving indications of a good opening. Since Friday sees an all important India v/s Sri Lanka clash at the box office, the evening and night shows will definitely take a big dip. But Saturday and Sunday are expected to be 70% + and probably even more if India goes on to win the match since people would be flocking the theaters in celebration. The opening could have been in an even higher range had there been no World Cup distraction but considering the star power and good record of Vipul Shah in the past [AANKHEN, WAQT], NAMASTEY LONDON is certainly a safe bet at the box office.

THE NAMESAKE is expected to follow the WATER route i.e. good acclaim but limited box office run. Even though the film is coming with go