First weekend performance of latest release

There were never any expectations from either BOMBAY TO BANGKOK or TULSI. Still, one expected at least a face saving opening for the former, though even that didn't happen. There was absolutely zero excitement around this Nagesh Kukunoor-Shreyas Talpade and the outcome was near empty houses all over. The film is en route to be yet another washout for the month of January.

So what really went wrong? Well, it is the fact BOMBAY TO BANGKOK is a sheer bad product! Nagesh Kunoor films have seldom taken any box office opening and have instead worked only with word of mouth. IQBAL and DOR have been a testimony to that. BOMBAY TO BANGKOK was no exception but the film turned out to be such a pedestrian product from a film maker of the caliber of Kukunoor that word of mouth instantly turned out to be out and out negative. Result? Yet another film which keeps the industry in red.

TULSI didn't even get a proper release and for reasons best known to the makers, Manisha Koirala, film's leading lady, was completely kept out of picture. A dated film, it never had a chance to make any difference to a bad start to 2008 and expectedly tanked on the first day itself.

Last week's movies

HALLA BOL had opened on a lower side but showed an upward trend over the weekend. Still as the week progressed, the film couldn't sustain itself and the result was that in spite of a huge release (over 700 cinemas), the film could only net around 11.5 crores. Poor. Reported collections from the city of Mumbai barely crossed the 1 crore mark while Delhi too was far from impressive, as indicated by the figure of 75 lakhs in collections.

This Rajkumar Santoshi-Ajay Devgan-Pankaj Kapoor film has turned out to be one of the unfortunate box office failures in recent times. A good film which deserved to do far better than what it has eventually done, HALLA BOL would be out on DVDs soon. Hopefully audience would catch the film there and appreciate it's content. A film for the masses, HALLA BOL did get cheers, whistles and claps by those who watched it but sadly number of such people was on the lower side.

Even though HALLA BOL would go down as a glorified failure, MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES won't achieve even an iota of that as it has turned out to be a disastrous cinematic beginning for newcomer Nikhil Dwivedi. With only 60 lakhs coming from the first week, MNIAG has been discontinued from majority of cinemas and would see a very quick DVD release. A lost cause, the film had pathetic collections all over, whether Mumbai (14 lakhs) or Delhi (4 lakhs).

From the past

As is the situation currently, no other film apart from TAARE ZAMEEN PAR or WELCOME is exciting audience to visit theaters. HANUMAN RETURNS is a washout with over 90% fall in it's third week. The film has barely touched 1.75 crores mark and it would end at this point. Meanwhile OM SHANTI OM and JAB WE MET have more or less ended their box office run.

A pleasant box office surprise comes in the form of TAARE ZAMEEN PAR which can be termed as simply spectacular. The film is hardly taking a fall and even in it's fourth week, it has netted more than 7 crores. Amazing! At 46 crores, the film is a solid superhit and has chances of reaching a further level up due to SUNDAY being the only competition till JODHA AKBAR arrives way down on 15th February. For yet another week where it's collections have surpassed those of WELCOME, TAARE ZAMEEN PAR is doing exceedingly well in Mumbai where it collected another 2 crores. Delhi is excellent too with 90 lakhs.

Meanwhile WELCOME too continues to find an audience and considering it's fantastic opening, it has done quite well to fall by only 50% in it's fourth week. The film collected 70 lakhs in Mumbai and 30 lakhs in Delhi and Ahmedabad each. Bringing home another 4.5 crores +, WELCOME has now crossed 70 crores and sitting pretty at 71 crores. Already the third highest money spinner of all times after OM SHANTI OM and DHOOM 2, WELCOME has turned out to be big, really big, for everyone involved with it.

In the future

2008 drought should be finally over with SUNDAY. The film promises to be a sure shot masala entertainer and the multi starrer feel is generating very good vibes. Director Rohit Shetty has a pulse for making massy movies, as evidenced in ZAMEEN and GOLMAAL and SUNDAY seems to be no exception. A comic thriller with a fine finish to it, SUNDAY seems to be just the right meal for Bollywood lovers who have been hungry for catching hold of an entertaining flick ever since the Christmas release of WELCOME and TAARE ZAMEEN PAR. Expect a 70%-80% start for this Ajay Devgan, Irrfan Khan, Arshad Warsi, Ayesha Takia flick.