First weekend performance of latest release

It was as dramatic as it gets as far the multiplex release of 'Fanaa' was concerned. Till hours before the commencement of the first show of the film, there was uncertainty around the final call taken by the multiplex owners. Flip-flop happened the entire Thursday before it was finally declared in the evening that the film would indeed be released in the multiplexes. With record prints arriving in all nooks and corners of the country, inspite of it's non-release in Gujarat, 'Fanaa' took an absolutely fantastic start all over even though advance booking at numerous centers could begin only late Thursday evening. With houseful signs for the entire weekend getting displayed by Friday afternoon itself, the verdict was clear - 'Fanaa' would be find a place in the topmost first week grosser of all times. Set for a record breaking first week, 'Fanaa' has been going strong even on weekdays and is poised to be yet another success for Aamir Khan after 'Rang De Basanti'. Will it go an extra distance and overtake 50 crore total of RDB? Too early to predict but one thing is for sure that it would cross the 30 crore milestone set by Aamir's previous release 'Mangal Pandey - The Rising'. On doing that, 'Fanaa' would ensure that Yash Raj Films has another decent success in hands and from there on it would only be marching towards the blockbuster status. Controversies help, yet again, as the first page news/breaking news scrollers about the distributors/exhibitors tiff made even an average man understand the modalities involved in the percentage share for the distributors and the exhibitors! The film may have opened to mixed reviews and word of mouth but there are few who have 'completely disliked' the film. 'Fanaa' belongs to that category of movies that are checked out by the moviegoers for the sheer pleasure of criticizing it if it turns out to be bad!

Last week's movies

'Aparichit' was the surprise of the week as its first week collections were head to head with the combined collections of the other two releases of the week - 'Ankahee' and 'Aatma'! With minimal cost involved in bringing the film to the theatres [since the film was dubbed from Tamil, the only cost for the producers was for dubbing and publicity], it should be profit time for the makers, at least in the Mumbai region where it did best to collect around 40 lakhs, inspite of a limited release.

Some time back Vikram Bhatt had mentioned in an interview that he would be happy if the 'story close to his heart' - Ankahee - collects 2 crores at the box office. One may have been surprised to hear such low expectations in the times when this kind of money is usually collected by 90% of the films coming from reputed banners. But unfortunately even that wasn't the case for this Aftab-Amisha-Esha film that couldn't even garner 1 crore in the first week, hence making a 2 crore overall total a distant dream for the film's producers - PNC.

From the past

'Tom Dick and Harry' held on reasonably well in the second week [though on the lower side] and defied certain sections of the trade that had announced doomsday for the movie after an encouraging first weekend. With an additional 2.5 crore coming in the second week, the film is now set towards the 10 crore total after having collected 8.5 crore already. An above average fare already, it continues to do good business in Mumbai [40 lakhs] and even a place like Ahmedabad [20 lakhs]. After a real long wait, entire starcast [Jimmy, Dino, Anuj, Celina, Kim] along with the director manage to get a success in their belt. And they have only one man to thank - Himesh Reshammiya!

'Tathastu' is now a certified disaster as it joins the ranks of 'Darna Zarorri Hai' to see one of the steepest fall ever for a film with good credentials. With embarrassing collections at whatever centers the film was running, there was just a million added to the sub-2 crore first week total to take it past the 2 crore. And this is the maximum that the film will go as Anubhav Sinha-Sanjay Dutt don't even get the film 10% of what they managed to get from their last venture 'Dus'!

With not much competition from 'Ankahee', 'Aparichit', 'Aatma' or 'Tathastu' and only 'Tom Dick and Harry' to compete with, '36 China Town' enjoyed a home run as it toppled TDH to become the No. 1 choice for the filmgoers in it's third week. The film has now comfortably crossed 20 crore after a 3 crore 3rd week and though 'Fanaa' wave may halt its dream run, it has still managed to get itself a semi-hit tag. A few more crores and the film can earn itself a HIT status!

Audiences continue to love the friendly 'Gangster' as 'Mahesh Bhatt' genre of cinema works again all over. Vishesh Films' formula of making films with new/upcoming actors/directors at moderate costs with prime focus on the quality of music and script seem to be working in a big way. They have recreated rules about the grammar of film making and no one can now accuse them of coming up with soft-porn in the name of commercially viable films. 'Gangster' is as classy as it gets for a film bound by commercial constraints and still earns more than a crore in its 4th week to get the movie close to the 13 crore mark. Already a HIT, it should manage to cross 15 crores in the long run. 

'Darna Zaroori Hai' barely touched 6.5 crores last week and has hardly moved from that position at the end of 4th week. With near to negligible collections to quote, the film has now exited from the screens all over. A flop for RGV, he still has number of films to compensate in the coming days, most notably being his directed version of 'Shiva' and his favorite project of the moment 'Nishabd'. 'Humko Deewana Kar Gaye' may just breath its last in a couple of weeks time as it fell more than 50% to collect around a million at the box office. With not much hope in sight in the coming weeks and the original DVD/VCD of the film already out, 'HDKG' should reach 14.5 crores in the long run and that's about it.

In the future

With majority of theatres across country screening 'Fanaa' and twin masti'n'mazaa coming in the form of 'Chup Chup Ke' and 'Phir Hera Pheri' in couple of weeks time, this Friday witnesses 2 small films - 'Love Ke Chakkar Mein' and 'Sacred Evil - A True Story'. While the former is a romantic comedy, the latter is a film belonging to horror/drama genre. Though the box office prospects of the two films hardly look exciting, what is noticeable about the films is the veterans who take center stage and get the meatiest role to play. The actors in question? Rishi Kapoor and Sarika. Will their presence help the films turn out to be dark horses?