'Neerja' has scored, and how! Once the promo of the film was unveiled, it was quite apparent that this was a dark horse waiting to be unleashed. Then a fortnight before the film's release, industry testimonials started coming in, which made one supremely curious around what was in the offing. Yes, considering the fact that many a film these days have such glorious coming its way, with or without the merits (as was the case with Fitoor just a week ago), one took it all with a pinch of salt. Still, there was hope that something terrific was on the cards.

Well, this happened on the day of release as well once the gates were opened for 'aam junta'. The 'asli awaaz' was heard then and it made a lot of noise right through the weekend. The film managed to bring in 22.01 crore over the weekend and with that it has ensured that it would be a comfortable HIT for sure. For Fox, this is a big shot in the arm since they went all out to ensure some innovative marketing campaign and smart release placement for the film.

While director Ram Madhwani has been unanimously appreciated for the sensitive drama cum thriller narrated in two hours, Sonam Kapoor has bagged reviews of the lifetime. For someone who was looked at primarily as a fashionista, Sonam has stood up in one uniform (that of an airplane Head Purser) for 80% of the film and managed to performed beyond her abilities.

The results are showing in the weekend collections which are amongst the best in the business, when compared with some of the other female centric films:

Mary Kom - 28 crore

Piku - 25.22 crore

Heroine - 25 crore

Neerja - 22.01 crore

Jazbaa - 15.24 crore

Kahaani - 15 crore

Alone - 15 crore

Mardaani - 14.34 crore

NH10 - 13.25 crore

Khoobsurat - 11.25 crore

Dolly Ki Doli - 10.76 crore

Queen - 10 crore

Loveshhuda was the other major release of the week and it hasn't managed to perk up much. With a weekend of around 3 crore*, the film is struggling.

Direct Ishq and Ishq Forever have turned out to be non-starters.

Sanam Re brought in around 3 crore* more and stands around the 29 crore* mark. It has turned out to be a coverage affair.

* Final numbers awaited

Note: All collections as per production and distributor sources

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder