First weekend performance of latest release

Though trade seems to be a trifle surprised while looking at the sustained run of 'Vivah' since the day it has released, readers may remember that we had mentioned in the last week's box office column about the film picking up pace just as the release day came close. The emotional chord seemed to have struck, especially while looking at Sooraj Barjatya's humble interviews all over the satellite channels and it was just the word of mouth catching up about whether the final product was actually worth appreciating. The good part is that the film opened well [70% +] everywhere and has been having a sustained run as the days continue.

While majority of films take some kind of fall with Monday's arrival, in the case of Vivah the collections are sustained which means the family crowds are patronising it and hence the film is being seen even on weekdays. The film is on its way to become a comfortable hit, what with the number of prints being increased in the coming week. Though the collections may not sound enormous when compared to the kind of crores that are being generated for all biggies these days, what needs to be kept in mind is that only 100-150 prints of the film have been released and that translates into a very healthy print average. An open week ahead would only help the cause.

'Apna Sapna Money Money' was always considered to be a good enough film to challenge 'Vivah.' Though there was no clash per se due to different genres of the films and print numbers being different, what cannot be negated is that ASMM too opened quite well, especially in Mumbai and has seen decent revenue coming in the susbsequent days. This medium budget film has enough laughs to keep its investors happy and make them laugh all the way to the bank. Yet another comedy has struck gold this year and should ensure the recovery within a week's time. Good run of a week or two more and the film could be called a comfortable success. Ritesh Deshmukh gets a 10/10 for his performance while Chunky Pandey gets his meatiest role ever since 'Aankhen.' It is good to see the actor make an impressive comic comeback as a Nepali-Pathani don. Sangeeth Sivan too has negated all the criticism for both 'Kya Kool Hain Hum' and ASMM and has enjoyed the last laugh.

'Deadline' was the least talked about film on its release and it continues to be so till date. Though the film has been given more or less a thumbs up by the critics, it hasn't really found the kind of audience it truly deserves. The film has some powerful performances by its lead cast and if it had been better promoted and had arrived with lesser competition, it could have done much better. Still, due to negligible competition coming Friday, the thriller should hope for a good word of mouth publicity for better results.

Last week's movies

While doomsday seemed in sight many days before the release of 'Umrao Jaan' itself, the opening day was nothing but a shocker. With near empty houses all around, it was a horrifying sight for this JP Dutta magnum opus. Any hopes of a turnaround were negated by the fact that word of mouth wasn't anything great, which further spoiled whatever chances the film had. The person who would be most impacted by the film's disastrous response would be Aishwarya Rai since she is the central protagonist in the film. Though she has delivered one of her best performances ever, the fact remains that her film didn't pull in much audience, thus putting a question mark over her standing in top bracket of Bollywood heroines. A six crore opening week was hardly a pleasant sight, especially when even a 'Tom Dick and Harry' earned as much in its first week. The only place where Umrao Jaan managed to touch 1 crore was Mumbai while in Delhi it earned 60 lakhs. In fact Delhi NCR [Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad, Kaushambi, Faridabad] contributed as much as 50 lakhs.

From the past

Even with 'Umrao Jaan' and to a little extent 'Jaan-E-Mann' as the competition, 'Don' held quite decently in its 3rd week and took an expected 50% fall. With another 6.5 crore week, the film closed pretty much close to 45 crore, hence bringing it en route to the superhit mark. The film had another 1 crore week in Mumbai though in Delhi it was shockingly low at just about 50 lakhs. Nevertheless, cynics may choose to ignore the film's success but the fact is that it has overall done extremely well in each and every territory. Shahrukh Khan's gamble for doing something different has paid off well while Farhan Akhtar written climax is the factor that is bringing in the repeat audience.

It was a case of losing breath with repeated hurdles and this is what happened to 'Jaan-E-Mann' as it finally lost out on steam by taking a 60% fall in it's 3rd week. With just another 3 crore coming in, the film is a flop as it stands at 25 crore. Ironical though, since a 25 crore total means that there were thousands of people who actually saw the film but the high cost at which the film was sold and the solid competition it faced from 'Don' meant that the film couldn't enjoy a box office success. A sad state of affair since the actors did their job well- Salman was appreciated by one and all, Akshay reinvented himself with a refined act and Shirish Kunder proved that he was a director to reckon with. But nutshell? Commmerically speaking - a flop!

'Lage Raho Munnabhai' completed 10 weeks at the box office and brought home another 50 lakhs to take the total in excess of 69 crore. Though it will be a stretch, the film should eventually reach 70 crores in a few weeks time.

In the future

Three stuck-in-the-cans films 'Unns,' 'Rehguzar' and 'Janani,' release this Friday. Apart from suffering from poor promotion, the films also have uncommon titles and zero buzz which makes it highly improbable for them to survive for more than a week, especially with 'Vivah' and ASMM doing well and 'Dhoom 2' coming in a week later.