First weekend performance of latest release

YASH RAJ FILMS finally have a success in their hands. After four back to back flops (LAAGA CHUNARI MEIN DAAG, AAJA NACHLE, TASHAN, THODA PYAAR THODA MAGIC) which boasted of big names like Rani Mukherjee, Abhishek Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit, Akshay Kumar, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Anil Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan, a film like BACHNA AE HASEENO with one film old Ranbir Kapoor has taken a good start at the box office. Of course presence of Bipasha Basu and Deepika Padukone is a big factor too with Siddharth Anand at the helm of affairs counting as well.

Considering the fact that SINGH IS KINNG had released just a week back and created a box office opening record, there were fears about BAH being eclipsed. However, that didn't quite happen as the film took an opening of over 70% which easily makes the film a safe preposition for everyone involved. With no big releases till the end of September, BACHNA AE HASEENO should bring smiles back in YRF camp!

GOD TUSSI GREAT HO, as expected, took an OK opening though a little better than expected. Salman Khan proved his prowess once again in the smaller center which meant that opening weekend was better than decent. A 50%-60% opening means that at the least this Rumi Jaffrey directed film has been face saving for everyone involved. Though in urban centers it is still movies like SIK and BAH that are holding center stage, there is a market in single screens which is happy with GTGH. The film is still on shaky grounds though considering there are 3 to 5 releases every week for next 6 weeks that should eat into it's business. Still, from a film which was thought to be a flop even before it's release has managed to recover a good amount of it's investment which means that losses, if any, would be minimal.

Last week's movies

SINGH IS KINNG is now the biggest ever Bollywood opener of all times. The film has broken the record of OM SHANTI OM which was created last Diwali and has collected close to 44 crores at the box office. Released at close to 1000 cinemas, the film has made records at number of centers. While Mumbai has surpassed the 7 crores barrier, Delhi has crossed 5 crores. Ahmedabad too came close to 2 crores, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Kolkata topped 1 crores while Delhi NCR is tremendous with 4 crores plus. In fact Gurgaon for the first time crossed 1 crores and was just below the 1.5 crore mark.

The film would obviously show a drop in it's second week but that would strictly be in terms of percentage which is expected considering huge collections in the first week. In terms of sheer money inflow, it should still come close to 20 crores which means that a week later, this Anees Bazmee film should top the business (75 crores plus) of WELCOME. It now has to be seen whether SINGH IS KINNG should eventually go on to break the record breaking 86 crores total of OM SHANTI OM. Considering the fact that BACHNA AE HASEENO has been doing good business and there are 3-5 releases every week, it does look quite difficult at this point!

What happened to GOOD LUCK in the meanwhile? Well, a 25 cinemas release and 3 lakhs coming from the entire country pretty much tells the tale, isn't it? Disaster!

From the past

As expected, UGLY AUR PAGLI took a massive fall (over 90%) in it's second week. The film was truly eclipsed by SINGH IS KINNG and could gather only 50 lakhs more. At 7.5 crores the film is coverage at some centers but that's about it. Also, at places where it hasn't managed to make any profits for the distributors, it hasn't been a loss making preposition either. In nutshell, a film which has been a come today - gone tomorrow affair. Of course, it would have done a little better if not for the competition surrounding it's release.

Both MISSION ISTANBUL and MONEY HAI TO HONEY HAI ran completely out of steam in their third week and between them only gathered 10 lakhs more. Two more disasters served by Bollywood in 2008! Meanwhile KISMAT KONNECTION continued it's trend of huge drops after a rollicking first weekend and saw close to 85% fall. With just 25 lakhs more coming in and it's total standing at 27.5 crores after 4 weeks, it's time for the DVD release of this average box office earner.

This means that the only film which still managed to stand tall over the week gone by was JAANE TU YA JAANE NAA which managed yet another crore to it's name. Though the fall was pretty apparent (60%), the collections were still good considering all other films were falling like nine pins in the wake of the success of SINGH IS KINNG. At 54 crores, the film has been a massive earner.

In the future

Three films release this Friday - PHOONK, MAAN GAYE MUGHALL-E-AZAM and MUMBAI MERI JAAN. Out of the three, PHOONK should take the best opening considering it's promotion being pretty much on par with Ram Gopal Varma's SARKAR RAJ. Pretty much boasting of on-your-face publicity with some excellent promos, this film comes at the time when mindless entertainers, comedies and feel good romantic films are doing the best business. For the set of audience looking at a unique thriller in the offering, PHOONK comes as a 'scary' relief.

MAAN GAYE MUGHALL-E-AZAM too should be safe since Mallika, Paresh Rawal and Rahul Bose are expected to bring in audience for this comic fare. An opening of 50% + should be good enough. Meanwhile MUMBAI MERI JAAN, though backed by critics and industry insiders who have seen the film in special screenings, may not really be able to do an AAMIR due to heavy inflow of movies starting this week. It should do well on home video though.