First weekend performance of latest release

There are some films which industry looks forward to being big time money spinners. There are some films which many want to fail at the box office. And then there are some which everyone is so indifferent towards. ANAMIKA, MR. WHITE MR. BLACK and PRANALI are three such films which released over the weekend gone by. Such low was the buzz around each of these three films that no one really cared/bothered, whether from the industry or the common public, if there was anything worthwhile at all to be checked out.

With minimal promotion of each of the three films telling the confidence level of the producers themselves, it came as no surprise that no one was even aware about their release. Of course 20-20 played a big role in keeping the audience at home but it hardly seems that the result would have been any different even if there was no source of entertainment for the audience except for cinema for the weekend gone by. Result? Each of the three films has opened to a disastrous response and it would be a surprise if the exhibitors even continue with any prints into the second week!

Last week's movies

TASHAN has done a SAAWARIYA at the box office! Last year when this supposedly epic-in-the-making by Sanjay Bhansali had released, it had made just a little less than 20 crores at the box office in it's first week. The film went on to go downhill from that point on and just couldn't recover from a poor start. Now TASHAN has performed worse than SAAWARIYA and made only 18.5 crores at the box office even though it has released at far more prints than SAAWARIYA. In fact if one looks at films coming from Yash Raj Films itself, TASHAN has fared poorer than even JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM which had collections similar to that of SAAWARIYA. Doesn't this pretty much tell the tale?

To give the film some credit however, the fact is that TASHAN didn't find an all-India release which did make a difference to the film's title. However, a year down the line all of this would be forgotten and what would be remembered most is that TASHAN performed way below expectations when it was touted to be THE film which would be Yash Raj Film's highest grosser ever!

Coming to the film's collections, the film earned 2 crores from Mumbai while Delhi was close to 1.75 crores. Delhi NCR was good though with more than 1.5 crores coming in (the film was released at numerous multiplexes here). Since the film now sees a multiplex release (though in limited prints) in the second week, the fall would be much lesser than 70%-80% which was otherwise expected for a film that has been unanimously rejected all over!

On the other hand SIRF wasn't even spoken about at all due to one simple factor - Indifference! The film has earned only 50 lakhs in it's first week and it should pretty much fold up around this figure itself. An all around disaster which would hardly find any takers in the DVD circuits as well. One more addition to the tally of flops this year!

From the past

With TASHAN failing to create any 'tashan', it came as a breather for U ME AUR HUM which otherwise was only hoping for a good run of two weeks! The film held on reasonably in it's third week and fell by 55% which is acceptable. 3 crores more coming in for this family movie meant that at 22 crores, this is yet another average success for Ajay Devgan this year after SUNDAY. With some acclaim coming his way for HALLA BOL as well (which otherwise was a flop at the box office), it is far from over for Devgan who has GOLMAAL RETURNS as a potential success in the pipeline!

Coming to collections, U ME AUR HUM earned 60 lakhs in Mumbai though it had to be content with 40 lakhs in Delhi. With none of the three new releases making any impression whatsoever over the weekend gone by, U ME AUR HUM now has a real chance of reaching the 25 crore milestone.

After a 70% drop last week, KRAZZY 4 was somewhat better in it's third week with a 60% fall. The film added another 2 crores to it's tally, hence making the film cross 23 crore mark. For debutant director Jaideep Sen, this is a very good start since an above average tag for this social comedy means that he can expect better things happening for him in future. In the long run, KRAZZY 4 also appears to be a 25 crore earner. This means that two relatively medium budget films released on the same day (U ME AUR HUM, KRAZZY 4) have brought 50 crores back into the industry. Not bad at all!

While SHAURYA is already out on DVDs after making ~2.5 crores at the box office, KHUDA KAY LIYE continues to live on with less than 30% fall in the week gone by. The film has been performing pretty consistently at it's target multiplexes and with 35 lakhs more added to it's total, this film from Pakistan is just a million below the 2 crore mark. A decent success.

Meanwhile RACE is still doing good for itself even though for the first time ever it earned less than 1 crore in a week. With a little less than a 50% fall and 70 lakhs more coming in, the film has now touched 63 crores which is around 50 lakhs ahead of JODHAA AKBAR (standing at 62.5 crores). Both the films are the only two super-hits of the year which is already into it's 5th month. Coming back to RACE, the film completes 50 days tomorrow and would be eyeing a DVD release in a week's time.

In the future

BHOOTHNATH and JIMMY are the two releases of the week and the scale at which they are set, none of the two seem to be doing much at the box office. BHOOTHNATH is a relatively bigger project but there is hardly any buzz surrounding the film. Even though the film has the towering presence of Amitabh Bachchan and that too in a title role, the promotion hasn't been able to hype up the project to an extent that it would entice first day-first show audience. At best, the film can hope to do well after an initial word of mouth.

On the other hand JIMMY doesn't stand any chance whatsoever and isn't expected to make any waves whatsoever. Even though the film's budget is hardly on the higher side, it's shoddy look and feel would go completely against it as it appears to be straight out of early 80s!