First weekend performance of latest release

'With Luv...Tumhara' was the sole release of the Friday gone by. Though in a normal scenario, a sole release brings with it a lot of benefits but then things have hardly been 'normal' since the release of 'Dhoom 2'! Even otherwise, 'With Luv...Tumhara' hardly stood a chance at the box office and in spite of the fact that it got a decent chain of theatres, especially with PVR resorting to give the film a decent number of shows due to unavailability of any new movies for last 3 weeks, the film could hardly capitalize on it. Poor reviews coupled with (expected) poor turnaround means that the film would add on to the list of small films that have turned out to be disasters at the box office.

Last week's movies

The definition of a bumper week would have to change from hereon as 'Dhoom 2' has written history all over! If the collections of Week 1 are anything to go by, this Sanjay Gadhvi film is easily en route to turn out to be the biggest money-spinner ever. It may not enjoy a 5 year run of a 'Sholay' or a tremendous stay at the BO like 'Gadar-Ek Prem Katha' or a 11-years-and-still-running film like 'DDLJ' but it is certainly destined to get to the top when it comes to the final numbers i.e. overall box office moolah! What else does one expect from a film that takes a 35 crore opening and still continues to do tremendously well at theatres across country in the second weekend?

KANK record of 28 crore was beaten with as much as a 25% increment which is a feat that promises to remain intact for number of weeks to come. Whether it was a A, B or a C center, the film has created records all over with Mumbai topping with a tremendous 6.5 crores, Pune sitting pretty at 1.5 crore and Ahmedabad boasting of 1 crore. Now let's talk about Delhi. Its total may look excellent at 2.3 crore but it could easily have been in the up of at least 1 crore if the film would have got a multiplex release there. Ditto for Delhi NCR where the film released only on single screens which means that in the end, the film lost out on at least a couple of crores overall!

Hrithik now emerges as a strong contender for numero uno position this year with two back to back successes though Aamir Khan is his closest challenger with both 'Rang De Basanti and 'Fanaa' being critically as well as commercially successful.

From the past

If the first week of 'Unns', 'Rehguzar' and 'Janani' were not disastrous enough then the second week meant a complete washout for them since the films sunk without a trace. No actor seems to have been really impacted by the dismal response though since except for a few people within the industry, no one from outside the industry or the paying public was hardly aware about any such movie coming and going!

'Vivah' has turned out to be a sweet little success for the Barjatyas [though not as huge as some sections of the trade are proclaiming] and while it is now a comfortable hit due to its low cost, the total at most seems to be reaching up to 20-22 crore range. In today's age when 20 crore is the minimum for a film of this stature to be called as a hit, 'Vivah' fits in the bill but that's about it. It was heartening to see though that in spite of 'Dhoom 2' mania all around, 'Vivah' was the only movie to have remained unshaken as it took a nominal 30% fall to end at 3.5 crores. Though the film took a dip in Mumbai [80 lakhs to 40 lakhs] and Delhi [35 lakhs to 16 lakhs], consistent collections at the smaller centers ensured that moolah kept getting generated for 'Vivah'. Shahid Kapoor now has a hat-trick of successes of varied degree this year [36 China Town, Chup Chup Ke and now Vivah] and should be enjoying a satisfying end of year with a cent percent run!

A total of 13 crore after 3 weeks clearly indicates that 'Apna Sapna Money Money' had its best chances in the first week on which it had capitalized with a 8.5 crore opening. The film could not survive the 'Dhoom 2' onslaught and crashed 70% to add in a measly 1 crore. Mumbai, the best territory for the film so far, was the biggest disappointment with a massive fall from 1 crores to 22 lakhs while Gurgaon turned out to be second best money spinner at 4.5 lakhs! Reason? 'Dhoom 2' hadn't released at multiplexes there. A film that looked set to be hit after the first week, it would now have to settle as an above average runner.

'Umrao Jaan' is now breathing its last with near to negligible 3rd week collections. The film fails to even reach 7.5 crore after a disastrous 6 crores opening. Ditto for 'Jaan-E-Mann' which is now in its last leg at 26.5 crores. On the other hand 'Don' has still some ammunition left with a 60 lakhs 6th week. Staring at 50 crores, it needs another 50 lakhs to reach the milestone. Meanwhile 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' too is striving to hit the 70 crore mark with another 15 lakhs needed for the achievement. With 10 lakhs coming in its 13th week, it should be a matter of time before the film achieves this feat.

In the future

'Baabul' enjoys being the sole release of coming Friday and would be expecting that the 'Dhoom 2' euphoria subsides by that time. The film is expected to take a much better opening than 'Baghban' [in the range of 60%-70%] due to latter being still fresh in audience's mind. Having said that, the film would mainly have families and senior citizens as its main audience since it is not really the first choice of youngsters due to two reasons - a) the subject doesn't sound really enthralling for them and b) 'Kabul Express' and 'Bhagam Bhaag' open in consecutive weeks.