First weekend performance of latest release

What Sanjay Gupta couldn't achieve with his last directorial outing ZINDA, he did it for his director Apoorva Lakhia in SHOOT OUT AT LOKHANDWALA! Tremendous publicity combined with using all media forums to create a massive hype resulted in SOAL taking the best opening of the year at the box office. Yes, best! Curiosity to watch the film increased exponentially as the Friday approached closer and by the time the gates opened for the first show of the film, there was a stampede situation outside both the multiplexes and the single screens!

To add to all the fun, the film has been appreciated by the masses in entirety while class audience is also showing keen interest in the film, hence ensuring that the film gets past the safety mark in one week flat. As of now the film is en route to be a massive success! Apoorva has turned third time lucky, and how! By the end of first week, the film should collect the double of what his first two films, MUMBAI SE AAYA MERA DOST and EK AJNABEE earned in their first week.

Happiest of all is bound to be Vivek Oberoi who has earned both accolades both from the junta and the critics. He has suited the part of the main villain in the film and has done justice to the heavily publicized Dutt v/s Oberoi clash!

It won't be wrong to say that SOAL wave impacted CHEENI KUM to a good degree! In normal circumstances without a major competition like SOAL, CHEENI KUM would have taken a good start at the box office. But it wasn't the case to be as the film saw a below average opening, though it remained stable over the weekend. It is highly expected that once the SOAL euphoria settles down, the film would be able to find its audience (mainly gentry) and help it cross the safety mark in around 2-3 weeks. Still, it is not a rosy road ahead since big competition lies in the form of FOOL N FINAL, PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN - AT WORLD'S END and SHREK 3. But more about that later!

CHEENI KUM could have been a superb film if only if was shorter by at least 30 minutes and not dragged unnecessarily in the second half. This is the reason why word of mouth too ranges from being good to just-about-ok, hence threatening to create a dent in the film's business. Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu have come up with superb acts though Paresh Rawal [surprisingly] has been out of color!

Last week's movies

Director Anurag Singh must be one disheartened man. He made a good first film RAQEEB but call it poor promotion, general lack of awareness and audience looking forward to the big Friday bringing to them SOAL and CHEENI KUM that the film got a cold shoulder. RAQEEB failed to taken even a decent opening and just didn't show any sign of a jump even though those select few who watched the film gave it a Thumbs Up.

In the end, the film dragged on to just a 1 crore mark with miserable collections from across the country. Both Delhi and Mumbai hardly managed to cross the 10 lakhs mark which tells the tale! A disappointing box office performance for a decent film, hence proving once again that a) 'intelligent' promotion is extremely vital to a film's fortunes and b) one can never predict what an audience is looking for.

Released at just about 150 theaters, EK CHALIS KI LAST LOCAL held on well for an entire week to cross the 1.5 crore mark. The film was quite good in Mumbai where it earned in excess of 60 lakhs though Delhi was just about ok with only 12 lakhs coming in. Delhi NCR though brought in revenues in the same range.

Surprisingly the film wasn't continues in the number of shows it was running in the first week with the print count coming considerably down, at least at the cities. Still, this small film has earned enough for itself to be called at least coverage at the box office. Abhay Deol gets a second success to his name after HONEYMOON TRAVELS PVT. LTD. while director Sanjay Khanduri makes a good start to his career with his debut film doing decent at the box office.

From the past

After TRRP, METRO has turned out to be second film in quick succession that has shrug past all the claims of being called as a non-starter/flop/box office disaster and instead proved to be a HIT at the box office. The film has turned out to be a very good success at the box office as it has created history by showing a negligible drop (~20%) even as it moved from 1st to 2nd week. Success of this Anurag Basu film is special since it retained itself at such collections while running at around 200 screens.

After a 6 crore first week, the film has earned 5 crore more to cross the 11 crore mark and hence qualifying as a hit. The film has held up well with Mumbai bringing in another 1.5 crore while Delhi sticking around the 60 lakhs mark. Delhi NCR too has held up amazingly well with 45 lakhs more coming in hence bringing cheers for the entire ensemble cast of the film. The way METRO is running at the theaters, it won't be far away from being a massive success if it holds on to similar collections for a week or two.

GOOD BOY BAD BOY did fall in its second week but to it's good luck, the drop wasn't that disastrous that it would be termed as a crash. Agreed that the film hardly had 5 crores to boast at the end of week 1 but another 2 crore odd coming in second week meant that the film would end up as at least a coverage with near 7 crore collections. It is not expected that the film would earn anything substantial from this point on but still call it the pull of Emraan Hashmi that he has managed at least a face saving box office outing for his film.

Falling by way less than industry standard of 50% every week since its release 4 weeks back, TA RA RUM PUM has now qualified itself as a clean hit in spite of detractors still trying to tag it otherwise. For a film to be called as a flop at the end of show 1, it is no mean achievement to net near to 35 crore in 4 weeks time.

Showing its power of having long legs, the film fell by just 30% last week and got home another 3.5 crore to keep the money flowing in. With Mumbai hardly showing a fall (1 crore to 80 lakhs) and Delhi too holding up well at 40 lakhs, the film has now made profits for all.

Meanwhile BHEJA FRY continues to surprise even it's makers as it refuses to budge in spite of all the competition around it. The film fell by just 20% last week and got home another 40 lakhs to take its total past 7.5 crores! Commendable. A superhit, BHEJA FRY by Sagar Bellary is yet another clean hit for independent film makers after KHOSLA KA KHOSLA.

In the future

FOOL N FINAL is the sole notable Hindi release this weekend though there is huge competition in the form of PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN - AT WORLD'S END and to an extent SHREK 3. Still, an immense publicity drive by Firoz Nadiadwala combined with exciting promos mean that the film should take a good start [50-70%] at the box office.