As expected, the weekend gone by didn't throw any surprises at the box office. It was pretty much a given that none of the four new releases would attract any audience and this is what happened as Friday opened to practically nil footfalls. Auditoriums bore a barren look with all four new releases - 'Mirch', 'Kaalo', 'Payback' and '332 Mumbai to India' - failing to make any mark whatsoever.

'Mirch' was the biggest film of all with at least known actors to boast of. Still, due to poor promotion and a haphazard release plan, 'Mirch' didn't manage any spice for the investors. The reviews too were average but the fact remains that even if they would have been good, it wouldn't have been any different for the eventual box office outcome. Sold as a sex comedy, the message just didn't reach the audience and as a result, no one stepped in. Chances are quite less that the film would manage to find an audience on satellite or home video either.

'Payback' was the better of the lot but this action thriller had such poor promos that one got an impression of it being an out and out B grade film here. However, the fact is that 'Payback' boasted of a good storyline and actually had it's moments to keep the audience engaged. This was of no help though for the makers as an unknown cast, poor promos, bad marketing and release amidst a crowd meant that 'Payback' didn't have anything working for it.

'Kaalo' would have the dubious distinction of being a horror movie without any horror. There were no scare elements in this 'day horror' flick which saw a sudden release for itself and wasn't even embraced by the lovers of horror genre. A star-less affair, it saw a scattered release for itself and found no takers, whether in urban or small centres.

As for '332 Mumbai To India', it saw worst footfalls amongst all with audience not even aware of a movie arriving by this name. A poor title, badly mutilated narrative courtesy Censor board (due to which beeps and pauses came in every second dialogue), poor acting and amateurish direction meant that '332 Mumbai To India' went totally unnoticed.

'Tera Kya Hoga Johny' was also supposed to release last weekend but Censor trouble meant that this Neil Nitin Mukesh starrer has now been postponed to 31st December, hence turning out to be the last release of the year.