First weekend performance of latest release

Sometimes all one needs to make a film a box office success is good music, very good publicity, beautiful actors and some attractive locations. Of course the content does the final talking in most of the cases but there are exceptions to the rule. KISMAT KONNECTION hits the jackpot by being one such exception. The film wasn't extraordinary; in fact it was one of the most ordinary works of Aziz Mirza but Pritam's chartbuster music aided by some spirited act by Shahid Kapoor, Vidya Balan and Vishal Malhotra saved the day for the fim. In fact not just the day but an entire weekend, as apparent from the huge start that the film took.

Opening over 80% on Friday, the film sustained well in the same ratio on Saturday and Sunday as well, hence ensuring that the candy floss film sails away to success. Of course the film isn't bad at all (that's exactly the reason why crowds kept coming in even on the Saturday/Sunday); it is just that overall it isn't as impressive as the promos indicated. Last 30 minutes of the film make one feel completely indifferent to the proceedings but it is the effervescence of the first half which compensates for that.

As of now TIPS and UTV are enjoying their second straight success together after RACE. With coming fortnight not really proving to be challenging enough and SINGH IS KINNG being far away (8th August), Shahid Kapoor can ensure yet another good HIT to his name after VIVAH and JAB WE MET! Ditto for Vidya who is now is making it three in a row after HEYY BABYY and BHOOL BHULAIYAA.

What can one say about CONTRACT? The film hasn't even risen at all to show any kind of drop whatsoever. The film was 'thanda' on Friday and followed the same route on Saturday and Sunday as well. Adhvik Mahajan has got good reviews for himself but since the film has hardly been seen by many (and seems to be on it's way off the theaters in a fortnight's time), his effort may largely go unnoticed. Honestly, the film isn't a bad watch per se but the KISMAT KONNECTION (and JAANE TU YA JAANE NAA which is still going strong) made sure that audience preferred feel good over underworld!

Last week's movies

A decent opening at smaller centers (it's target audience) had raised hopes for MEHBOOBA. The star cast got the film it's initial at select centers. However, it was just a bubble which burst soon after. The moment opening weekend was through, the film crashed at the box office. Result was that in spite of being released at 400 cinemas (most of them being single screen though), the film could muster only 2 crores. Quite poor for a film which has been made on a very lavish budget. Mumbai had mere 40 lakhs to show while Delhi was extremely poor with only 10 lakhs.

Unlike another stuck film like BIG BROTHER (starring Sunny Deol which had released last year after being in the making for 5 years and had still went on to make close to 7-8 crores), MEHBOOBA is all set to disappear in a fortnight's time. Ironically, this one is a huge flop which doesn't make a difference to anyone associated with the film except for the distributors who had invested in it. As for producer-director Afzal Khan, he has GOD TUSSI GREAT HO to look forward to (which by the way has debutant Rumi Jafrey at the helm of direction)

From the past

JAANE TU YA JAANE NAA has turned out to be a blockbuster at the box office. Not just that, it has also created a record for Imran Khan who now has the biggest grosser to his credit when it comes to a debut film. Sustaining itself brilliantly with increased number of prints in it's second week, the film has barely shown a fall in collections and collected another 17 crores at the box office. This brings it's two week total to more than 37 crores which leaves behind the collections of all those blockbusters/super hits in the last couple of decades which featured newcomers.

The films that we are talking about are KAHO NAA...PYAAR HAI, MAINE PYAAR KIYA, QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK and ISHQ VISHK - each of which had it's main lead being seen in a lead role (in a commercial set-up) for the first time. Hrithik Roshan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shahid Kapoor - each of them had a great kick start to their career when the aforementioned films went on to be huge hits. The collections for these films (incidentally all of them belonged to romantic genre) were huge and turned the actors into a household name.

The same has now happened for Imran Khan for whom JAANE TU YA JAANE NAA has turned out to be a great beginning. Collections speak for themselves as 37 crores in just two weeks is far more than what any debutant leading hero has enjoyed in the past. The film boasted of more than 4 crores in it's second week at Mumbai while Delhi had another 2.25 crores to add. NCR brought in another 1.25 crores which makes JTYJN a bona fide blockbuster in the making.

With 50 crores collections being a given for this Abbas Tyrewala film, it now has to be seen whether the film goes on to top 60 crores, a benchmark set by the two biggest grossers of 2008 so far - RACE and JODHAA AKBAR!

LOVE STORY 2050 is now officially a box office disaster. Incurring heavy losses after a (expected) massive crash in it's second week, it's publicity too has come to a standstill. It must certainly be heartbreaking for Bawejas who spent close to 3 years in creating this dream for celluloid. Yes, the effort was visible but audience, which has it's own parameters for getting enthused about a film, didn't quite worry much about what went behind the scenes. What was on screen mattered most and truly, LOVE STORY 2050 didn't quite succeed in that. Just like RAM GOPAL VARMA KI AAG last year, LOVE STORY 2050 too took more than 80% drop with a little more than 1.5 crores coming in. At 12 crores, the film is making a hasty retreat from theaters. Quite disappointing!

While JTYJN was keeping people busy in giving it a second watch, YRF clearly gave up and got their act focused on BACHNA AE HASEENO instead. The man who would be most bitter by the turn of events should be Kunal Kohli himself since he hadn't quite made a bad film. On any other day with another production house and a different cast, his fantasy film may just have managed to sail through. However, the stars didn't quite favor him with JTYJN killing whatever limited chances that the film had. Result was another 70% fall and only 1.25 crores coming which brings the film's total to 22 crores. FLOP.

In the future

MISSION ISTANBUL and MONEY HAI TOH HONEY HAI are the two releases in the coming weekend but none of the two are expected to take anything better than a 30%-40% opening. Out of the two, MISSION ISTANBUL should open better since it has been aggressively promoted by producer Suneil Shetty. Also, Apoorva Lakhia has made a couple of well directed action films in the recent years (SHOOT OUT AT LOKHANDWALA and EK AJNABEE) that may just bring in the audience over the weekend.

Surprisingly MONEY HAI TOH MONEY HAI has not touched even 25% of the kind of promotion which producer Kumar Mangat has done for his films like SUNDAY, ONE TWO THREE and even HAAL E DIL. The film's promos have been ordinary too and until and unless there is a trend reversal happening with the film turning out to be better than the promos, this Govinda starrer doesn't quite stand a chance!