First weekend performance of latest release

The weekend gone by was pretty lukewarm as far as new releases were concerned. While Anajn Dutt's THE BONG CONNECTION hardly saw any shows for itself and was an absolute non-starter, MY FRIEND GANESHA didn't bring on many smiles either. BOMBAY TO GOA was relatively better with single screens at smaller towns and cities being encouraging. A low budget film, it may just about manage to break even, which would be a win in itself. Agreed that the film came with nonsense appeal but then neither the makers were making a MUGHAL E AZAM nor did the audience venture theaters expecting a SHOLAY.

Last week's movies

Typically there are two kinds of reports that float around the trade when a high profile film release. On one hand there are supporters of the film that praise it to sky while on the other there are detractors who try to pull it down by all possible means. Clearly there are two extremes where a film oscillates between a hit and a flop.

Call it Himesh Reshammiya's fortune but this time around the trade is divided in a completely different manner. While one section is calling it as a hit, the other is going all ballistic to call it a super-duper hit while even comparing it to the likes of D2, SIVAJI or KRRISH. Ok, so while we pass the latter since it clearly is a case of over excitement, what cannot be denied is the fact that this reasonably budgeted film that has not really been extensively mounted for it's distributors has made them all smile in a big way.

The film has earned in the excess of 10.5 crores and though a 50% fall is expected in the second week, Reshammiya has managed to get much more than what probably even he would not have expected. His haters may continue to do so for the sheer pleasure of doing so, but his fan following has only increased with the film; no two opinions about that. The film saw 1.4 crores coming from Mumbai with Delhi contributing 1.7 crores.

Though in isolation these numbers do not indicate anything earth shattering, what needs to be considered is the fact that the film got a wide single screen release across the country. While revenue wise the numbers from smaller centers may not throw mega crore numbers, the fact remains that house full boards were back again at these centers which resulted in consistent collections from A, B and C centers.

On the other hand APNE is showing promise at the ticket window and while near 13.5 crore total would be one of the best for Sunny Deol/bobby Deol starrer for ages, large chunk of it's success should go to Dharmendra. The film should show less than 50% fall in the second week which is a win in itself because none of the recent Deol starrers has met with such mass appreciation ever since one can remember.

Yet again, the film was notable not only for its decent A center collections [Mumbai - 1.5 crores, Delhi - 1 crore, NCR - 50 lakhs, Ahmedabad -55 lakhs] but also the revenue which came from single screen theaters spread all over the country, especially the North belt. Word of mouth, as expected, has caught up well as the first week came to a close and though calling the film a hit would be a little too quick, APNE at the least is a comfortable success in the making. Both Sunny and Bobby have got a fresh lease of life and while Sunny should now be choosing his projects more carefully, the prospects only improve for Bobby's upcoming flicks NAQAAB and EK - THE POWER OF ONE.

Title of Govinda's film SANDWICH could have well held good for Emraan Hashmi's AWARAPAN. Call it an irony but his best film ever is currently struggling at the box office, first due to stupendous opening of AAP KAA SURROOR and later due to APNE staying well at the box office. At 5 crores and looking at regaining some ground in week 2, AWARAPAN got the best of the reviews but that didn't really translate into audience making a beeline.

While in Mumbai the film couldn't get to 1 crore [collections read 85 lakhs], Delhi said a sorry tale too with just 55 lakhs coming in. Bhatt's most ambitious and heavily publicized film ever, AWARAPAN is plain unfortunate when it comes to the final box office outcome. Period. One now strongly hopes that the film's DVDs are much more appreciated and find a consistent shelf life for them.

From the past

As predicted last week, CHAIN KULLI KI MAIN KULLI saw a massive crash in week 2 with more than 90% fall. With hardly any substantial improvement over it's earlier total of 1 crore, the film is an all around disaster. CK2MK is one of those films that are released just for the sake of getting them out in theaters while knowing well in advance about their real prospective at the box office.

JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM now earns itself as the biggest ever loosing preposition for Yash Raj Films ever since one can last remember. And by loosing preposition I just don't mean the money part of the things. It is sheer face value that has got an impact with JBJ. While TRRP managed to survive the backlash, JBJ could not. The film was the kind that would have got extreme reactions. Some would have loved it while there was always a risk of many hating it.

To the disappointment of YRF, it was latter that happened as hardly many caught fancy to the unconventional screenplay and treatment. Result? A rapid fall for the film which is now seeing it's way out of the theaters with yet another massive fall of more than 80%. With less than a crore being added to the total, JBJ today stands at barely 26 crores!

Much maligned FOOL N FINAL has survived yet another week and though it crashed by around 80%, it still managed to get home 10 lakhs. Standing at 19 crore and looking at it's DVDs being out, FNF has covered costs and now has given Ahmed Khan some breather after an all around backlash that the film received when it opened. SHOOTOUT AT LOKHANDWALA too saw a massive crash in the week gone by and after a 75% fall managed to earn close to 25 lakhs. With the film's DVD arriving at the stands, SOAL is looking at folding under 34 crores.

CHEENI KUM followed an almost similar trend last week with 75% fall resulting in 25 lakhs more coming in. At 15.5 crores, the film should fold under 16 crores with the DVD release round the corner. Meanwhile METRO has now touched 16 crores with the best part being that out of all the films running in the country, it saw a minimum fall in spite of three major releases [APNE, AKS, AWARAPAN]. With 20 lakhs more coming in after a 55% fall, METRO too is now on it's way out with it's DVDs already creating some heat at the stands.

In the future

TIPS needs to be applauded for the massive promotion campaign that they designed for NAQAAB. The film looks quite promising with Abbas Mustan stamp visible all over. A suspense thriller with newcomer Urvashi Sharma said to be making an author backed debut, the film should open well in the range of 60%-70% collections. A solo release factor should help and the film should hold on well even after a good initial that it should collect over the weekend.