First weekend performance of latest release

Two distinct films released last Friday - SHAKALAKA BOOM BOOM and PROVOKED. While SLBB looked safe due to its multistarrer appeal, popular music and good vibes that the film's subject was generating, PROVOKED was always meant to be a dicey preposition due to its dark theme and minimal publicity.

Nonetheless, both the films failed to create any major impact at the box office as neither SLBB nor PROVOKED opened to a heartening response. While poor beginning to PROVOKED was as expected (it is a kind of film that would have worked mainly on word of mouth), the response to SLBB was disappointing to say the least.

SLBB was always expected to open in the middle range and then hope for better days ahead based on its merits. Hence a lukewarm opening was disappointing but not threatening since it was expected that the film would pull through by the time the first weekend was through. Sadly none of that happened as the film met with such horrific critic response that revival from that point on looked very difficult.

Coming to the merits of the film, it actually does boast of a good storyline but surprisingly 90% of the media was unanimous in calling it a dud. Call it a joint call or just a coincidence but the fact remains that SLBB has opened to the worst reviews this year, followed closely by only DELHII HEIGHTS, the film which released a week earlier. It is sad to see that the good effort put by both Bobby Deol and Upen Patel is not being seen by many and if the film's trending doesn't move towards stability soon, it would turn out to be a loosing venture for everyone involved.

Last week's movies

Jimmy Sheirgill, Sarwar Ahuja and Sanjay Suri, the lead actors of DELHII HEIGHTS, KHANNA & IYER and SAY SALAAM INDIA would certainly want to forget if these films ever happened to them. The biggest disasters ever of their career [except for debutant Sarwar who would be hoping that this was just a bad dream], each of the lead actors have a BIG flop to their name now.

The saddening part is that none of them is to be actually blamed for the poor response to their films since they did all they could to come up with good/convincing acts. It's the film/promotion that failed them which meant that 2007 had 3 straight losers added on to its tally.

While DELHII HEIGHTS failed to even cross 50 lakhs across the country, KHANNA & IYER is a mammoth disaster by just about managing to cross 5 lakhs! Regarding SAY SALAAM INDIA, the less said the better since the film's collections were in few thousands, let alone even touching 1 lakh at a single center!

From the past

With zero competition challenging its might, NAMASTE LONDON only grew from strength to strength as it went on to add on another 9.5 crore. Now this is just a 40% drop over its first week total of 15.5 crore, something which we predicted last week looking at the trending and a good word of mouth that the film has been generating ever since the first show of the film commenced.

Though first week indicated a final total in the range of 30-35 crores, an excellent second week combined with lack of any major competition till the arrival of TA RA RUM PUM on April 27 means that the film has good potential to cross 35 crores. The film is doing exceedingly well up North India as it collected further 1.5 crores in Delhi after an opening of 2 crores. Even in Mumbai, it has been on stable grounds as indicated by its 1.25 crore + second week figure after collecting 2.25 crores in the first week.

At 25 crores and still pulling in audience in hordes, the film is now already a semi-hit with a potential to be an all around hit if it maintains the trending as reflected in the second week.

Mira Nair's THE NAMESAKE has turned out to be a surprise box office success. Opening to a moderate response, the film recovered well by the time first week came to a close. After collecting 1.25 crores in the first week (decent), the film ended up garnering an even better response in its second week as it showed a jump in collections to bring in another 1.4 crores with its total now exceeding 2.5 crores.

The only film which has shown such consistency in the recent past has been VIVAH though the magnitude of collections has been a lot higher. Nevertheless, the success of THE NAMESAKE marks the acceptance of a new kind of cinema which actually cannot be classified into a particular genre. Boasting of superb performances from Irrfan Khan, Tabu and Kal Penn, the film also comes as a shot in the arm for UTV which didn't have a particularly good start to the New Year with the poor response to HAT TRICK.

With films failing around it left, right and center, VIVAH marches on towards the silver jubilee mark as it collects 15 lakhs, exactly the same amount as in last week, in its 21st week. Coming back into the Top-5 charts, the film's marketing, release strategy and product placement deserve to be considered for a case study across management institutes. The film is still running at over 50 cinemas with its total inching towards 32 crores.

In the future

An action/drama, romantic/drama and a comic/drama makes for the offering that Bollywood has for the viewers coming Friday. The films we are talking about are BIG BROTHER, LIFE MEIN KABHIE KABHIIE and BHEJA FRY. There is some uncertainty over the proper release of BIG BROTHER across good chain of theaters and it may eventually arrive only on single screens. Long in the making and with not much promotion for the film except for the television promos, BIG BROTHER has its chances mainly up North.

LMKK is a Vikram Bhatt film and since he has a series of box office disappointments behind him, the film seems to be facing a hushed up release with not much promotion backing it up. There are not many expectations of an opening from this youth multistarrer. Third release of the week is BHEJA FRY and though the film comes with just 2 weeks promotion behind it, an attractive title followed by an impressive ensemble starcast may make this whacky film the first choice of moviegoers at least in city multiplexes [its target audience]