First weekend performance of latest release

There are som films about which the target audience and prospects start becoming clear from the very first round of promotion. 'Baabul' is one of them. The day this social's promos started coming on air, two things were pretty obvious. One, it seemed to continue with a strong 'Baghban' hangover. Nothing wrong about that since it was merely continuing on a winning formula. But it was always going to be dicey to expect a similar response second time running. Two, 'Baabul' gave obvious vibes that it may not really have much foot falls from the crowds that had been enjoying their outings with films like 'Don' and 'Dhoom 2'.

Keeping these two factors into consideration, it was being anticipated that the film would at maximum have an above average start and pick up 'only' if word of mouth was good. Well, the opening was average at maximum and word of mouth hasn't been too kind either with the film coming under the hammer for being too predictable, slow and devoid of the kind of emotions that one would have expected from a film that was an obvious follow-up to 'Baghban'. Though the film may still gain some ground due to its biggest challenge 'Bhagam Bhag' still a week away, it seems highly unlikely if it would be a anything more than an average runner.

Last week's movies

'With Luv...Tumhara' has been a washout and none is surprised by its box office outcome. The film got a very selective release in a few cities [Mumbai, Delhi, NCR, Indore etc.] and the collections were in thousands from each of the centers. First week stands at a mere 5 lakhs and that should be about it for this film that is nowhere in the second week. One wonders where does Preeti Jhangiani's career go from here? On the other hand Pravin Dabas gets a disaster after a surprise hit 'Khosla Ka Ghosla'!

From the past

Just 2 weeks have gone since the release of 'Dhoom 2' and it has already achieved a superhit status. While the first week collections were in the tune of 35 crores, the second week has been excellent too with 23 crores more in its kitty. Though first week collections are a record by a big margin, particularly astonishing are the numbers of the second week collections. This is because 23 crores in the second week for D2 are higher than the first week collections of 'Fanaa' [21 crores], 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' [21 crores] and 'Mangal Pandey', 'Veer Zaara' & 'Phir Hera Pheri' [all 17 crores]. The film has done astonishing business all over with 4.25 crores coming from Mumbai, 1.5+ crore from Delhi (without major multiplexes) and a shade below 1 crore from Ahmedabad and Pune each. Terrific!

With around 58 crores already in its kitty, D2 is already on par with Yash Raj's biggest success till date, 'Dilwale Dulhanya Le Jayenge' and just 5th on the list of 'All Time Blockbusters' after 'Gadar-Ek Prem Katha' [70 crores], 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' [70 crores] and 'Krrish' [65 crores]. Looking at the way the film is progressing, D2 is all poised to cross DDLJ and LRM in the current week and emerge as the biggest box office success story ever!

If there is one film that withstood D2 onslaught even in its 4th week, it is none other than Shahid Kapoor-Amrita Rao starrer 'Vivah'. The film has turned out to be a sleeper all around success with near 3.5 crore coming in again while running on a consistent number of prints over last month. The collections dipped down by less than 10% in the 4th week and Rajshri's strategy of releasing the film selectively and placing it at screens which would get its own loyal share of audience has worked in a big way. After dropping down by 50% last week in Mumbai, it remained quite consistent by collecting 35 lakhs from the city (a minimal fall from 40 lakhs last week). On the other hand Delhi saw an upswing in collections (though marginally again) by moving up to 17 lakhs from 16 lakhs. Standing at 18 crore, the film is now a very good hit and is poised to get higher billing if the graph keeps moving upwards in the same manner.

After taking a mighty fall of 70% last week, 'Apna Sapna Money Money' stabilized with a 50% fall. Registering 50 lakhs to its 3 week total of 13 crores, the film is now ending its run and should fold up at maximum collections of 14 crores. An above average flick, its DVDs have been brought out on the stands pretty quickly and should make for a decent home viewing when you are in mood for a laugh.

After completing 50 days at the box office, 'Don' is now a million away from touching the 50 crore mark after getting another 30 lakhs to its total. On the other hand 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' too is 10 lakhs shy of touching the 70 crore milestone after completing 100 days at the box office.

In the future

Three films of different sense and sensibilities release this Friday. While offbeat 'Dil Se Pooch Kidhar Jaana Hai' is a clear non-starter while suffering from zilch publicity, an unknown starcast and a theme (post Mumbai-bombing situation) which is not everybody's idea of entertainment, 'Aryan' starring Sohail Khan and Sneha Ullal is an interesting case of a supposedly decent flick loosing its standing at the box office due to a huge delay. The film which was reasonably in demand during the middle of the year due to a fresh theme (story of a boxer and his conflict between choosing his career v/s family), 'Aryan' suffered due to the legal complexities it got entangled with. Subsequently the film's release kept getting postponed and though the preview and trial shows indicated that the film was a good entertainer, it doesn't quite seem probable for it to embark on a winning note.

Major release of this week is Yash Raj Films 'Kabul Express' and if a dream 2006 is any indication, the film making house would want to have a cent percent record with this John Abraham-Arshad Warsi film also hitting the bull's eye. Though it will be fool hardly to even imagine the film beginning on a record breaking spree a la a 'Fanaa' or a 'Dhoom 2', a decent beginning (50-60%) followed by a good word of mouth should be good enough for it to sail through.