First weekend performance of latest release

As expected BHOOTHNATH didn't set the cash counters jingling on the day of it's release. The film couldn't create any excitement throughout it's promotional campaign and the theme - friendship of a ghost and a kid - too didn't promise any built up on hype. The film opened to a mixed response both from the paying public as well as the critics. The film didn't go the whole hog in terms of kiddie entertainment and in the end even presence of Shah Rukh Khan in a 20 minutes appearance didn't make film buffs lap up to BHOOTNATH.

Though there have been murmurs of the film picking up over the weekend, it is purely in relative terms considering the poor start (30%-40%) that the film took. The film needs to see a good escalation over the second weekend as well to go past the safety mark.

Was anyone surprised at all by the horrendous fate of JIMMY? I mean the scare factor was right up there the moment first look of JIMMY was unveiled during the screening of PARTNER. The film was so shabbily packaged that it made Mithun Chakraborty's Ootywood films look like far more polished products. No wonder, the moment screening of JIMMY began, there were tell tale signs all over about the bruises that Mimoh's launch would face over the next few days. Such bad is the execution of the film that even average acting and looks of Mimoh are being hailed to be the best part about JIMMY!

Last week's movies

One week. Three releases. All three flops. ANAMIKA, MR. WHITE MR. BLACK and PRANALI arrived in the week gone by and though presence of Arshad Warsi and Suneil Shetty made MR. WHITE MR. BLACK look like the best of the lot, it was hardly a consolation factor. This stuck-in-the-cans project was poor cinema all the way and the result was seen in it's collections that barely crossed the 2.5 crores mark. Though fate of some of the recent releases makes this look like a decent number, it is still a flop all the way with more than 80% crash expected in the second week. The film has been rejected all over as can be witnessed from 50 lakhs coming from Mumbai and Delhi contributing a meager 25 lakhs!

Disaster isn't the right word to explain the fate of ANAMIKA and PRANALI. While ANAMIKA netted only 12 lakhs from across the country, PRANALI too folded up at only 9 lakhs. Simply unbelievable! All this means that the two films won't even recover their print and publicity costs.

From the past

In the week gone by, trade gave TASHAN another chance to show it's pull at the box office. Even though the film's collections were poor in the first week (~18.5 crores), especially while keeping into consideration that the film had seen a huge release (750+ cinemas), the final verdict was kept on hold since the multiplex issue was seeing a resolution in the second week.

As Yash Raj Films and multiplexes announced truce, TASHAN saw a multiplex release from second week onwards. Though the number of shows (4 to 6 a day) were far lower than what a film of this stature enjoys in the first week (15 to 20 a day), trade still looked forward to how TASHAN would perform. With releases like ANAMIKA, MR. WHITE MR. BLACK and PRANALI hardly expected to be any competition whatsoever, it had to be seen if TASHAN managed to hold on to decent collections in the second week and come up with a face saving total.

However, this wasn't the case to be as the woes of TASHAN continued in the same mode as the week gone by and the film hardly seemed to be on the road to recovery. As per the collections made available for the second week, the film has seen close to 60% fall and recorded only around 8 crores more. This means that at a 26 crores total with not much expected to be gained in the weeks to come, TASHAN would indeed go down as a flop. The film managed to touch 1 crore in Mumbai though Delhi was poor at 65 lakhs. Quite a sorry state for a film which was expected to be the flagship project for Yash Raj Films this year!

U ME AUR HUM lived for yet another week and earned a crore more after a 65% fall. At 23 crores, it has been a decent directorial debut for Ajay Devgan who has managed to redeem his box office status to some extent with the film. KRAZZY 4 saw a heavy fall with collections dipping down by more than 75%. 50 lakhs more coming in means that KRAZZY 4 has now crossed the 24 crores mark. Now is just the right time for the film's DVDs to hit the stands. Meanwhile VCDs of RACE have arrived though DVDs are still a little distance away. In the week which led to a 50 day celebration, RACE earned another 40 lakhs, hence crossing the 63 crores mark.

In the future

JANNAT should take a good start at the box office. The film is arriving solo while the music has been sitting pretty at the top of the charts for quite some time now. Also it seems like a divine intervention that JANNAT is releasing at a time when 20-20 is at it's peak. While all other recent releases are falling like nine pin, JANNAT appears to be only film which should keep the box office busy, considering it's contemporary theme of cricket and the world of betting and match fixing. With films and cricket merging, courtesy 20-20, it should benefit JANNAT.