First weekend performance of latest release

With January first week jinx scaring away makers from releasing any of their films, there were no new notable releases this weekend.

Last week's movies

The flop record for movies releasing on last Friday of the year remained intact even in 2007 with both RETURN OF HANUMAN and SHOWBIZ turning out to be box office disasters. Neither of the two even took a decent opening; let aside showing any sustainable business as the first week came to close.

Yet again, Anurag Kashyap went ahead and made statements about him being unhappy about his own film. Surprisingly, this came within the first weekend of RETURN OF HANUMAN being released. Not that his saying otherwise would have made much of a difference since the audience had already given the film a thumbs down. Opening at only a little above 1.25 crores, the film had it's maximum moolah coming from Mumbai (~50 lakhs) whereas Delhi got home only around 13 lakhs.

On the very first day of it's release, SHOWBIZ would have been forgotten even by the Bhatts, let alone making any mark with the audience. Seemingly an excess baggage which Bhatts wanted to dispose off in the year gone by, SHOWBIZ now officially qualifies as their biggest ever box office disaster. With miserly collections of 25 lakhs that saw an embarrassing 6 lakhs coming from Mumbai (the film registered it's highest collections here when compared to rest of the country), SHOWBIZ turned out to be hardly the kind of business which newcomer Tushar Jalota would have wanted to be a part of!

Even though there were no notable releases last week, chances of RETURN OF HANUMAN or SHOWBIZ to show some signs of survival are absolutely nil.

From the past

What a week for Bollywood when it comes to two films belonging to entirely different genres raking moolah in a big way at the box office! Both WELCOME and TAARE ZAMEEN PAR stayed on to be terrific in their week two, hence ensuring that business wise Bollywood got it's best ever fortnight. While in week one, both the films had collectively earned more than 51 crores at the box office, week two was excellent too with 35 crores coming between the two films. This makes it more than 85 crores in a single fortnight for Bollywood, the best ever in history of India cinema!

Coming to WELCOME, the film held on very well and though cynics may term ~40% as a fall, the fact remains that the film still earned close to 22 crores in the second week. When hardly 10 films in a year cross the 20 crores mark in their first week, WELCOME has achieved this feat in it's second week after a bumper 35 crores first week, hence touching 57 crores in two weeks flat. Collections were strong all ever again with Mumbai (~3.75 crores), Delhi (~ 2 crores), Delhi NCR (! 1 crore) and Ahmedabad (~1 crore) continuing to be super strong along with rest of the country.

The film is now the biggest ever earner for Akshay Kumar and though he would (rightly) share the credit for the film's success with Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar, the fact remains that WELCOME has achieved a blockbuster status for itself.

TAARE ZAMEEN PAR is not far behind either and if one looks at the kind of budget spent on the film, a two week total of close to 30 crores (with 13 crores + coming in the week gone by) means that the film is a clear super hit and not too far away from the blockbuster status. The film hardly took a fall in the week gone by and stayed on relatively consistent with less than 20% drop. In Mumbai and Delhi, TAARE ZAMEEN PAR is now neck to neck with WELCOME and crossed 3.25 crores and 2 crores respectively. The film should continue to register consistent collections even for weeks to come with no noticeable drop.

In it's 5th week, AAJA NACHLE showed signs of making a sad exit from theaters across the country. With barely 10 lakhs coming that didn't do much to it's 16 crores total, the film is seeing a DVD release this week. Same holds good for GOAL too which has exited a shade below 17 crores and is now available on home entertainment.

At 86 crores, OM SHANTI OM completed 50 days at the box office while gaining another 25 lakhs mainly on the basis of weekend audience strength. The film has set new benchmarks for Shahrukh Khan and his next big release would certainly be targeting the 100 crore mark. On the other hand Shahid Kapoor, who has given two back to 30 crores super hits (VIVAH and JAB WE MET), would be having a 50 crore milestone in mind. Would his KISMET KONNECTION turn out to be that film?

In the future

Ideally a film starring Ajay Devgan in a Raj Kumar Santoshi venture would have arrived amidst immense hype and created quite some buzz. Unfortunately this cannot be said about HALLA BOL which in spite of looking like a quality product isn't making much of a pre-release fizz! The film looks extreme at the moment - either too good or below the mark. There aren't much hopes about the opening here and chances aren't too high about the film making much of a mark at the box office.

Same holds good for MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES too which in spite of being promoted reasonably well appears to be a dated film. Also, there isn't much clarity around whether the genre of the film is comedy, gang war, action or drama! Yet again, there isn't much expectation from either an opening or sustenance stand point.