Box office behaved pretty much as per expectations over the weekend gone by. It was always on the cards that none of the newer releases had the potential to bring on any footfalls and even 'Bheja Fry 2', for all it's talk of being second in the series of an established franchise, didn't have many chances as well. This is the reason why it was surprising to see people shocked when the film took a below average opening. Well, it was predicted in this column that the opening won't be more than 30%-40% range and this was pretty much the case for the Vinay Pathak starrer.

With around 6.5 crores coming in the opening weekend and not much escalation in footfalls coming in, the film would settle down as being an average affair but that's about it. Of course the makers would have expected a much better response but then they can well thank their stars for even such collections since a mediocre film like this could manage to hang on only due to the franchise quotient. Otherwise the way critics panned the film and even audience wasn't too enthusiastic about the humour, 'Bheja Fry 2' would have completely lost it if not for the delightful Part 1.

As for 'Always Kabhi Kabhi', it has actually proven to be a bigger disaster than what one had envisaged. The film saw a mere 1 crore over it's first weekend which is extremely low by all standards. Rest assured, the film won't even cover it's print and publicity cost. The film has been universally rejected and is one of the biggest disasters coming from the production house of Shahrukh Khan. The film failed to entice even it's target audience - youth - which didn't even bother to check it out in theatres, let aside commenting on it being good or bad.

'Bin Bulaaye Baaraat' has fared marginally better but that's about it with 1.5 crores coming after the first weekend. The film saw even worse reviews coming its way and urban audience didn't even get a chance to see it since this Aftab Shivdasani comedy was mainly released in small towns and single screen theaters. It would be a miracle if the film manages to cover it's costs.

'Bhindi Baazaar Inc' was the best bet of the film but failed miserably due to poor pre-release buzz, lack of stars, haphazard release timing and competition from the crowd. With less than 50 lakhs coming in the first weekend, this well made film is an unfortunate disaster. As for 'Cycle Kick', the fifth release of the week, it's fate was the worst of all as it wasn't even reviewed by the critics, hence making it quite obvious that 'aam junta' wasn't expected to walk into theatres either.