First weekend performance of latest release

1920 has turned out to be a success for it's makers. This period-horror flick, a unique combination in fact, has done well over the weekend and stayed consistent to earn 3 crores net from India. These are quite decent collections considering the mid-size release that the film enjoyed, mainly newcomers staring from the billboards, Ganesh Chathurthi and Ramzan being on and Delhi blasts disturbing the inflow of audience on Saturday and Sunday (which are considered to be the best days for a film's business). For a film budgeted at only 6.5 crores, the returns have been more than satisfactory, hence resulting in Vikram Bhatt finally having a success in hand after 6 long years (his last success was AWARA PAAGAL DEEWANA).

As was quite obvious even before the release of the film, RU BA RU bombed at the box office after first show itself. There were no takers for the film and that's understandable considering there was zero news about a film by that name arriving at theaters. Poor reviews were last nail in the coffin and result is that this Randeep Hooda - Shahana Goswami starrer would be out of theaters in one week flat. A box office failure which won't effect/surprise anyone except for it's makers.

Sudden effort for creating hype around THE LAST LEAR seemed quite suspicious to begin with, especially considering headlines screaming 'Big B's best performance ever'. With a proclamation like this being literally on-your-face, it seemed fishy if THE LAST LEAR actually carried such credentials. The viewers weren't enticed though by such tall claims and lack of commercial elements meant that a film by Rituparno Ghosh was rejected by mainstream audience in major part of the country once again after CHOKER BALI and RAINCOAT. Sad, but true - the man hasn't really been able to make his presence felt amongst that segment of audience which actually brings in moolah!

Last week's movies

From the first week collections itself, it is crystal clear that A WEDNESDAY has comfortably sailed through. The film has garnered more than 3.25 crores and is still going strong in it's second week. This has been a clear word of mouth and actually the only film this year which opened at 15%-20% response and showed houseful signs as the week progressed. Clearly a 'public ki choice' film, A WEDNESDAY has invoked sentiments like never before in last so many months and is actually gathering a cult status for itself. This small film crossed 1 crore mark in Mumbai (tremendous) while Delhi too saw more than 40 lakhs coming in. NCR further brought in 20 lakhs. Very impressive. The film has worked across the country and is en route to gathering a hit status for itself if it enjoys two more good weeks.

HIJACK has flopped and has turned out to be yet another example of a film which people rejected even before seeing it. Reason behind that is quite known by now and it would be repeating the obvious. However, one feels for debutant director Kunal Shivdasani who was highly optimistic about the fortunes of his action thriller in spite of his lead cast being absolute 'thanda'. In any case, he has shown that he is a fine technician and it should not be long before he bounces back with a fresh project while roping in a saleable cast. The film collected a mere 2 crores from across the country with 35 lakhs from Mumbai and 30 lakhs from Delhi.

TAHAAN was never supposed to be a film which could have been taken seriously at the box office and 35 lakhs in collections from across the country more than proved this. This one would see a quick DVD release.

From the past

Both CHAMKU and C KKOMPANY have failed at the box office and how. They both crashed by more than 90% and had negligible collections to show in their second week. In fact CHAMKU would easily find itself as a forerunner of being the most major box office disaster of the year with 13 lakhs in second week bringing it's collections to a mere 2 crores. Yet another huge setback for Bobby Deol from where it would require quite an effort for him to be appearing in a solo lead again. He has a consolation though in the form of DOSTANA which is a sure fire success.

Tusshar Kapoor and company have gracefully accepted C KKOMPANY to be a flawed product and moved on. In fact Tusshar is looking forward to GOLMAAL RETURNS which is bound to be a huge success at the box office. The film collected 30 lakhs more to get to 3.75 crores in collections. However, this is yet another major failure for Ekta Kapoor after MISSION ISTANBUL. Expect DVDs of both the films to be out on stands soon.

ROCK ON continues to do exceedingly well at theaters all over. After a terrific first week, the film has done very well in the second week as well with third weekend being superb too. ROCK ON has been a one horse race as it has gone from strength to strength throughout the week. Now even in it's second week, the film has hardly seen a drop (less than 20%) when compared to the first week and netted around 8 crores more. While Mumbai read 1.75 crores, Delhi has been good too with 1 crores plus. Delhi NCR has garnered further 80 lakhs. An Abhishek Kapoor directed film which is already a HIT, it may well turn out to be SUPERHIT if it continues the same way for 10 more days.

MUMBAI MERI JAAN has managed to hold on reasonably well in some centers which meant that third week fall was a reasonable 60%. With 35 lakhs more coming in, this low budget film now stands at 3.5 crores and has turned out to be yet another safe venture for UTV, hence bringing their record in 2008 to be cent percent. PHOONK too continued to get some audience for itself and with 55% fall, added another 1 crore to it's collections. With this, PHOONK is now a 10 crores success for Ram Gopal Varma whose next film would be seen in 2009 now.

BACHNA AE HASEENO is continuing to be a weekend watch for quite a few cinegoers and a 55% fall meant that this Siddharth Anand film still talks the language of crores. Garnering a little more than 1.5 crore, BACHNA AE HASEENO has managed to cross the 36 crore mark and should stretch to end at 38 crores. SINGH IS KINNG too fell by 55% and in the process added 1.5 crores to it's total. At 74 crores and a Superhit tag, it would fall short by a few lakhs when compared to Anees Bazmee's last film WELCOME (which reads 76 crores). The only film maker in the history of Bollywood to give as many as two 75 crores runner, Anees Bazmee is today country's most sought after director when it comes to commercial cinema.
In the future

Yet another week, yet another instance of three films releasing simultaneously. However WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR, SAAS BAHU AUR SENSEX as well as HULLA are hardly expected to create any 'hulla' whatsoever at the box office. Expecting anything more than 20%-30% opening for any of the three films would be a surprise! However, it's urban theme and a catchy title may just result in SAAS BAHU AUR SENSEX picking up at the box office if the word of mouth turns out to be favorable as well.