First weekend performance of latest release

There was no notable release in the week gone by with an offbeat BOW BARRACKS FOREVER being the only new film at the theaters. As expected, the film didn't find any takers.

Last week's movies

The unthinkable has happened. No one, not even David Dhawan would have ever imagined PARTNER to be the kind of success it has become. As a solo release of the week, the film opened to an unbelievable response and stayed on to do excellent business throughout the first week. Result? The film has now joined the league of big budget extravaganzas like DHOOM:2, KANK, KRRISH and DON when it comes to all time high opening week collections. While DHOOM:2 sits at the top with 35 crores, PARTNER has ended up raking 30 crores which is phenomenal to say the least. KANK (28 crores), KRRISH (26.5 crores) and DON (24.5 crores) now follow behind.

Tremendous to say the least, the film continues to attract audience due to two major reasons. The film has garnered excellent word of mouth with repeat audience flocking the theaters too. As a result the film collected 6 crores in Mumbai, 2.5 crores in Delhi, and 1.25 crores each in Delhi NCR and Ahmedabad. Excellent! David Dhawan, Govinda and Salman Khan have struck big time, and how. The film is still creating records and it's second week billing is expected to be huge too due to zero release factor.

From the past

Last week itself, one could sense that 70% fall for NAQAAB was imminent. It has been worse in fact as the film crashed completely by suffering as much as a 80% fall. In line with the kind of disastrous second week response that JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM experienced a few weeks back, NAQAAB is now a certified looser at the box office with just 2.5 crores more coming in second week. While Mumbai crashed from 2 crores to 35 lakhs, Delhi had a horrific fall from 1 crore to just around 10 lakhs.

At 14 crores, the film is expected to take a head on fall over next fortnight as well and vanish from the theaters soon. A city film, it hardly has any chances in the B and the C centers where the prints are expected to be in circulation now.

While for Abbas Mustan it is indeed a sad situation since their 36 CHINA TOWN also got a lot of flak, Akshaye Khanna can take solace from the fact that he has GANDHI MY FATHER coming this Friday. For Bobby Deol, the film's failure shouldn't matter as he has been getting wholesome appreciation for his recent work while Urvashi Sharma can take heart from the fact that in spite of limited stay at the screen, the film has showcased her talent and got her noticed.

PARTNER mania in the week gone by meant that each of the other films in the running was swept over. BOMBAY TO GOA wasn't an exception as it too fell by 80% to register only 10 lakhs more. Still, the film has done it's job and is ending with 2.5 crore + total. Yet another comedy of the season that has paid dividends.

APNE saw minimum fall though strictly on a comparative note. It did get 1.25 crore more but still fell by more than 65%. PARTNER wave hit it hard, though in the subsequent weeks it is expected to stabilize relatively. At 26 crores, the film can expect at least 2 more decent weeks at the box office after which it should be time for the film's arrival on DVDs and VCDs.

On the other hand both AAP KAA SURROOR and AWARAPAN fell by around 70% to earn 50 lakhs and 20 lakhs more respectively. In the last leg of their theatrical run, AAP KAA SURROOR sits at 18.5 crores whereas AWARAPAN at 8.25 crores is showing signs of folding up. Expect each of the films to fold up soon since August is a movie heavy month with as many as 6 biggies planned for release one after another.

In the future

Destiny has it's own cruel way of looking at things. At one point of time GANDHI MY FATHER was supposed to be the sole release of 3rd August. In fact the release date was announced by Anil Kapoor weeks back and the film looked all set to explore the market of it's target audience on it's arrival. In the meanwhile CASH imbroglio resulted in number of changes in it's release plans. Finally, the worst has happened as this action/thriller by Anubhav Sinha would be clashing with Feroz Abbas Khan's GANDHI MY FATHER.

No brownie points for guessing that CASH would be taking a good (and a much better) start at the box office. Looking at an opening of at least 60-70% (which should be good considering the fact that almost 700 prints are being circulated in India alone), CASH should be the talk of the town over the weekend. On the other hand GANDHI MY FATHER is expected to take a slow though positive start at the box office. If the quality of story telling is good (which pretty much seems to be the case), the film should remain consistent over next few weeks.

NAYA DAUR is the third release of the week but this Dilip Kumar classic is not expected to open in the same range as MUGHAL E AZAM did a few years back when released in a colored version. For those thirsting for nostalgia, it may be a good venture but for most CASH followed by GANDHI MY FATHER should be the first two choices of the week.