First weekend performance of latest release

It's the season of Boards exams and as expected the occupancy rate in theatres has gone down. In such a scenario when small movies like 'Holiday' and 'Mixed Doubles' come unannounced, its doomsday written all over. While 'Holiday' opened to mixed reviews that were between average and above average, 'Mixed Doubles' too had 'mixed' reviews but the range was from 'average' to 'very good'. Unfortunately none of the reviews reflected in the movie's opening as it was far from impressive. Crowds just didn't throng the theatres for the two flicks due to 'thanda' vibes that came during the pre-release and zero effort from the people involved with it to give it a push further resulted in lack of excitement. As things stand today, the only beneficiaries after the release of the two movies are the lead actors Dino Morea and Ranvir Shourie who have been appreciated by one and all. Out of the two movies, 'Mixed Doubles' still has some chance to gain from word of mouth and get some respectable status but for that too luck would have to play a major role. In nutshell, the two movies are another downers for the month of February.

Last week's movies

Emraan Hashmi and Himesh Reshammiya have sprung a surprise once again with 'Aksar' turning out to be a success. Just like 'Aashiq Banaya Aapne' last year, even 'Aksar' opened to poor reviews all around but audience proved once again that reviews hardly matter if 'they' are genuinely attracted by the product. Producers of 'Aksar' hardly left a stone unturned for the movie's promotion while the music company had the songs blazing all over for more than a month, which meant a good opening for the movie. 'Aksar' collected more than one crore in Delhi alone which is a major achievement in itself. First week's collections were over 5 crores that very much covers the budget of the movie. From now whatever the movie makes translates into profits, which means a successful outing for its director Ananth Mahadevan. Dino Morea too registers a hit after a long time that should compensate for the non-show of 'Holiday' and spread positive vibes for his next week's release 'Fight Club'.

While 'Aksar' collected around 2 crores from Delhi and Mumbai alone, the other release of the week, 'Mere Jeevan Saathi', collected less than that from the entire country in its opening week. First week collections in Delhi were shocking to say the least as they read a miserly 7 lakhs while Mumbai (a strong market for Akshay Kumar) too had a horror story to tell with a sub 25 lakhs collections. The movie stands no chance whatsoever in the coming weeks and would go down as the biggest flop of Suneel Darshan-Akshay Kumar combo. The third release 'The Myth' proved to be a big myth for Mallika Sherawat as it sunk without a trace in the Delhi NCR where it was released after garnering unmentionable collections.

From the past

With most of the movies in and around it falling like nine pins, the time was ripe for 'Rang De Basanti' to continue consolidating its position. The movie has shown no sign of budging from its strong position after the second week and has now reached almost close to the 30 crore mark from India alone. Even in overseas the movie is soon on its way to be one of the all time grossing Hindi movie ever. A huge hit by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Aamir Khan, it has also managed to include names of Madhavan, Soha Ali Khan, Sidharth, Atul Kulkarni, Kunal Kapoor and Sharman Joshi in history books as the people who delivered one of the biggest success stories of all times.

'Family' has been shown an exit door after 4 weeks with a sub-10 crore mark while 'Zinda' too has just a week or two more before it ends its run. 'Bluffmaster' has completed its 50 day run and now Sippys would be looking forward to the release of their 'Taxi No. 9211' that comes on 24th this month.

In the future

As many as 6 movies are lined up for this Friday - Fight Club - Members Only, Chingari, Rafta Rafta - The Speed, Faltu, Banana Brothers and Mr. 100% - The Real Player. While the first four are confirmed releases, stuck in the cans Banana Brothers and Mr. 100% - The Real Player too may be able to see the light of the day. Out of the 6 releases, only 'Fight Club - Members Only' can be considered to be a worthwhile commercial outing due to its multistarrer status, good music, stylish look and a popcorn entertainer feel. The movie should open at least above 50% and if it stays like this for a couple of weeks also, the game should turn into its favor.

'Chingari' may have been starring Sushmita Sen along with Mithun Chakravorty but chances are bleak that paying audience would be overtly interested in walking into a theatre to watch an intense story of a small town prostitute. 'Rafta Rafta' has small time actors in it with only notable faces being Sameer Dharmadhikari (Satta) and Pakistani actor Jawed Sheikh. Very minimal chances of surviving! 'Faltu' is a bengali movie by the same film maker, Arindam Chaudhary, who had made campus caper 'Rok Sako To Rok Lo'. A movie that may do well only in film festival circuits, it literally comes unannounced. Other two probable releases, 'Banana Brothers' and 'Mr. 100% The Real Player' too do not promise much as the former suffers from near-to-nil publicity with zilch awareness about the movie while the latter smelling of a sleaze product, a genre that has been rejected all over in last one and a half years!