First weekend performance of latest release

This Friday audiences proved once again that in most of the cases it is fairly simple to differentiate a bad product from the good one. Otherwise how could one explain the shockingly low opening weekend for 'Teesri Aankh - The Hidden Camera' that boasted of A-starcast [Sunny Deol, Amisha Patel]. There was nothing in the promos the movie that could have excited a viewer to venture into a theatre and once the movie was released, the word was out about this Harry Baweja film being a sub-standard product. A downer in all senses, it is particularly surprising to be coming from the same man who gave a high voltage slick product 'Qayamat' a few years back.

Last week's movies

There were some murmurs in few sections of media that were hell bent on trying to pull down 'Taxi No. 9211' as a flop. Inspite of such headlines and an obvious attempt to call it a qualified loser, the final figures at the end of week one had a different tale to tell. The fact is that the movie has taken the second biggest opening after 'Rang De Basanti' this year and already has more than 9 crores in its kitty.

For a movie budgeted at 6 crores, it is already a comfortable semi-hit and with not many notable releases till the beginning of April, it has got a open house to enjoy a long stint. The movie has done tremendous business in Mumbai (as expected) with first week crossing 2 crores whereas in other metros and cities too it has done decent business. The movie should comfortably reach 20 crores which is quite good considering the unusual pairing John Abraham and Nana Patekar and no real romantic angle per se. Its celebration time for Sippys as they get another consecutive success after 'Bluffmaster'.

Both 'Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai' and 'Sun Zarra' had a disastrous opening everywhere and it is difficult to choose which one is the bigger box office failure of the two. Audiences just weren’t interested in the old fashioned romance cum drama that resulted in empty houses across nation.

Whether it was HTPH that was a multistarrer with Bobby Deol, Amisha Patel and Arjun Rampal or 'Sun Zarra' that had newcomers Samir Aftab and Anjana Sukhani, the result was just the same. While HTPH collected a mere 50 lakhs odd at the end of first week (something that a small movie like 'Mixed Doubles' too managed to do), Sun Zarra was not even released properly and had an embarrassing all-India figure of 5 lakhs!

From the past

'Fight Club' saw one of the biggest falls ever in the last few months for a multistarrer as it recorded just about 20% collections of what it did in its first week. At the end of second week, its total reads as 6 crores and with the graph completely nose-diving as the days progressed, there are no hopes left at all for the film to break through. The movie has almost vanished in the third week, which is quite surprising for a film that promised to be coverage at least when it was released.

In its second week, the collections of 'Chingari' read in thousands at all centers (A, B, C) and not even lakhs that tells the tale. With a heavy fall in the second week, just about 20 lakhs collection and everyone associated with the movie admitting the movie's failure, the movie is bound to end its run in no time with just 1 crore total.

Extremely poor! 'Mixed Doubles' is still surviving in the Top-10 list and has now crossed 1 crores at the end of 3 weeks. The movie may just about manage to reach coverage but that's about it. 'Aksar' has now crossed the 8 crore mark but is falling rapidly as the weeks progress. Still, it has managed to give itself a above average status and a first all-India success for director Ananth Mahadevan.

'Rang De Basanti' doesn't really stray much from its enviable position at the box office and continues to mint money for its producers. With its fifth week collections reading 3 crores, it has now crossed the 40 crore landmark.

In the future

With exams seasons looming large in India, only small movies are filling up the theatres. This week sees 'Malamaal Weekly' and 'Jigyaasa' releasing and while the former if indeed a multistarrer with Priyadarshan at the helm, the movie has been practically under-promoted all over. Never in the history of a Priyadarshan movie has the publicity been such a low key affair but for the reasons best known the producers, there hasn't been much awareness created around the film.

Still, going by the past record, this movie made in a reasonable budget should manage to do an above average business at the least. The other film 'Jigyaasa' has Hrishita Bhatt as the central protagonist and has a non-starter written all over it. There is absolutely no 'jigyaasa' in anyone around watching this flick about the 'inside operations' of Bollywood!