'Ishaqzaade' was clearly the first choice of all cine-goers as it released last weekend and took a good start all over. If the morning shows sent out positive signals, evening and night shows were even better, hence ensuring that rest of the weekend was bountiful as well. It was expected that the film would take a 50% opening and see better footfalls if accepted. This was exactly the case as the Habib Faisal directed affair collected close to 16 crores in it's first three days which, as far as one remembers, is the best start that a film featuring a debutant has ever taken.

Arjun Kapoor, who didn't quite make a flashy entry into Bollywood and had a faux pas in the form of 'Virus Diwan' (which never got made and was shelved in favour of 'Ishaqzaade'), is clearly the new toast of the town as his natural act has been appreciated all over. Parineeti is now sitting pretty amongst the promising newcomers as well and audience too has given a green signal to both youngsters. This means that even though the film did find some criticism coming it's way from some quarters, by and large the response was positive which means even the weekdays won't see a crash.

Since films coming from the house of Yash Raj Films boast of in-house economics, the costs are cut down and various rights (satellite, music, DVD etc.) ensure return for such medium budget affairs. With box office throwing good moolah as well, 'Ishaqzaade' is fast moving towards the 'semi-hit' mark at the least and may do even better if it holds on well in the second week (despite opposition from 'Department').

On the other hand 'Dangerous Ishhq' didn't have any such luck and all predictions failed for this Karisma Kapoor starrer. One had expected the film to open decent at single screens and 3D screens at the least. However even that didn't happen as the film had a disastrous start and stayed on the same course over the weekend. With just over 3 crores being accumulated over the first weekend, the writing is clear on the wall that this Vikram Bhatt film has been rejected. Other than the fact that the film didn't find any opening whatsoever, the fact that even word of mouth was hardly encouraging further dented it's chances.

'Forest', the third release of the year, went an expected route and didn't even find any good shows for itself. The film wasn't even reviewed by most critics and 'junta' wasn't interested either. Result? A box office disaster.

Watch Ishaqzaade Trailer