First weekend performance of latest release

Fearing that all three Diwali releases may turn out to be big money spinners, no movie released this week. Though in the hindsight one feels that a movie or two coming on 11th November may have only benefited due to the lack of great show of any movie except for Garam Masala.

Last week's movies

The verdict is out. Garam Masala is a clear cut winner with both Kyon Ki and Shaadi No. 1 being far away. The most amazing part of Garam Masala's success has been its overseas performance that has been phenomenal from Day One. Lady luck is definitely smiling on Akshay Kumar because of hard work coupled with consistent show along with good diverse choice of subjects. While Waqt has recently completed Silver Jubilee with a great show in overseas too, Garam Masala is on the same path as well.

There was some buzz around Garam Masala poised to beat the first week record of Mangal Pandey or Veer Zaara due to a good response and a 9 day week. But that wasn't the case with the total collections coming close to 15 crore. With Garam Masala being reasonably budgeted considering its high profile cast and crew, it has already recovered its cost and is now looking at making profits from this week onwards.

Another thought around Garam Masala's performance at the BO was whether it would be able to challenge No Entry. Well, that seems unlikely as the word of mouth has been good to very good but not tremendous as was in the case of No Entry. In the overseas it would definitely beat No Entry but in the domestic market it doesn't seem to be on the path towards coming anywhere close to No Entry's 45 crore total. Also, there is much more challenge ahead for Garam Masala with at least two biggies coming every week till December-end that would curtail its sustaining power at the theatres. All said and done, Garam Masala would go down as yet another hit for Akshay Kumar, a sweet success for John Abraham and continuation of winning streak for Rimmi Sen.

Compared to Garam Masala, both Kyon Ki and Shaadi No. 1 have managed only 9 crore each, which is not very encouraging for a Salman Khan starrer and a David Dhawan directed movie. Kyon Ki not even taking a thunderous opening solely means that the promotion lacked zing because the subject would have come into picture only after the first day screening. With Shaadi No. 1, it’s clearly the case of audience being simply not interested in watching infidelity centric comedy month after month. Also poor word of mouth for both the movies after the first day hardly helped the cause with none of the two showing any remarkable progress as the days went. While Shaadi No. 1 may still about to manage to scramble along to somehow make it to the break-even point [if it runs well in the B and C centers on a long run], it would be interesting to see if Kyon Ki too follows suit as last time a Salman Khan movie with a tragic end released, it made money in the long run. The movie was 'Tere Naam'. Hence there is still some hope!

From the past

If there were two movies that were still in the running along with the Diwali releases, they were Hanuman and No Entry. After a shaky first day opening, Hanuman did well in the opening week and has been quite consistent in its 2nd and the 3rd week. This low budgeted movie has already reached the 4 crore mark with Mumbai showing phenomenal collections for a movie belonging to the animation genre. With December being a holiday season, Hanuman's makers have all the reasons to continue having smiles on their face. Boney Kapoor too would be grinning from ear to ear as his No Entry is still doing reasonable business with collections reaching the 45 crore mark.

Koi Aap Sa has been a disaster at the BO with collections hovering around the 2 crore mark. Original DVD/VCD of the movie is out that tells the tale. Salaam Namaste too sees its VCD being out [though after 10 weeks] after being a HIT at the BO, though for the reasons known to YRF, its DVD is still awaited.

In the future

Coming week sees the release of Akbar Khan's Taj Mahal, about which no one still knows about the budget. When it started off, it was supposed to be a 100 crore movie but as the months and years progresses, conflicting reports started coming out that ranged the budget from 50 crores to 25 crores to 75 crores. Still, when the movie is now finally hitting the marquee, the publicity has not been in the top gear as one would have expected from a biggie like this. There is absolutely no hype or buzz around the movie and it would come as a surprise if the film manages a great initial. One may still want to pass the final verdict after Friday once the movie releases because looking at the scale at which the movie has been produced, one never knows if it could be THE BIG movie that could pull through with the help of word of mouth.

Other biggie that releases this Friday is Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena that should manage a decent opening [in the range of 70-80%]. This well promoted movie seems to be a good masala entertainer with right dose of action, glamour, drama and gloss. If the subject is equally good as the packaging then this could be a good success at the BO as it has its target audience as teenagers/college goers! Third release of the week is Kamal's 'Sitam', which is directed by Partho Ghosh. With not much face value to boast of [OK, it has Tara Sharma but she is hardly a crowd puller], it may do some business only with its target audience i.e. the front benchers.