First weekend performance of latest release

As expected, out of the three releases of last week [Aksar, Mere Jeevan Saathi and The Myth], Emraan Hashmi and Himesh Reshammiya took the lead over the likes of Akshay Kumar, Karisma Kapoor, Jackie Chan and Mallika Sherawat and fetched the best opening for their 'Aksar'. Superhit music, Hashmi's presence and some genuinely interesting promos did the track and the movie opened in the range of 60-70% plus (as predicted by us last week). The kind of moderately budgeted flick 'Aksar' is, a good weekend and an average week to follow should be good enough to sail it past the safety mark.

There were speculations galore about the fortunes of 'Mere Jeevan Saathi' due to a delayed release and the 'suspense' factor on whether movie would actually arrive but the opening was further 'shocking' to say the least. One of the poorest openings for an Akshay starrer, the outdated story and complete lack of interest in the movie for the audience put the final nail in the coffin for this Sunil Darshan movie. Chances are bleak that the movie would be able to go any further than a 3 week run. 2006 is surely not smiling for Akshay as he gets a second flop in a row after 'Family'.

'The Myth' obviously seemed to have been released for the sake of it as the prints may have been gathering dust! The movie came, was hardly noticed, was further given a skip by most reviewers too and even the presenters chose to gave it a cold shoulder prior to its release. The result? The movie is on its way to be one of the biggest Chan non-shows in India which means no publicity for Mallika as she may have hope from 'The Myth'.

Last week's movies

Craze for Rang De Basanti continues to be unprecedented with an uninterrupted run even in the second week. The movie continued from a great first week and unlike 'Mangal Pandey' that showed signs of a crash in the second week, RDB is on its way to be a big money spinner. In its first week, the movie fell short of the 20 crore target but still garners one of the best openings ever with a 17 crore figure to boast of. The movie had record breaking collections in numerous centers. Mumbai broke the 4 crore barrier while in Delhi too the figure was an astonishing 2 crores. In Pune, the movie reached agonizingly close to 1 crore whereas in Ahemadabad and Kolkata it broke the 50 crore mark. Overall a great week for the movie that only seems to consolidate further as days progress.

From the past

Fate is completely sealed for 'Family' with extremely poor collections in its 3rd week. Fastest movie ever for Raj Kumar Santoshi, Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar to fade away from screens, it is surely going to be a forgettable venture for producer Keshu. There were no worthwhile collections anywhere in the country and the movie is going to end below the 10 crore mark. A disaster! 'Zinda' was marginally better but still not good enough to sustain itself after its 3rd week. Most of the collections came from Mumbai and Delhi [10 lakhs each] but they are still not good enough for the movie to be called a success. Expect its DVD to be out in a couple of weeks time!

All eyes are now set on the release of 'Bluffmaster', well, as a DVD! The movie continues to mint some money even till date and would end its run as a 20 crore success. Now the time is best for its DVD to release as it should sell all over like hot cakes. On the other hand both 'Apaharan' and 'Kalyug' continue to run well in some parts of the country inspite of their DVDs being out.

In the future

Two movies release this week and both have one thing in common - poor publicity! 'Holiday' and 'Mixed Doubles' come along with each other and are bona fide multiplex movies. A Pooja Bhatt movie, 'Holiday' has surprisingly come unannounced, especially so since Bhatts are knows for being publicity mavericks. There are hardly many who know about the movie's release and chances are high that this Dino Morea-Onjolee Nair movie would fade away before it comes anywhere near to the rising. On the other hand Rajat Kapoor's 'Mixed Doubles' boasts of an interesting storyline and by its look appears to be a typical multiplex fare. But still there is a bare minimum publicity required even for such a movie, which is absent in its case. Only word of mouth can save it from getting tanked completely.