First weekend performance of latest release
Extreme styles of film making came to fore last Friday with the release of Taxi No. 9211, Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai and Sun Zarra. While Taxi No. 9211 was an original script which could qualify as new age cinema due to the subject and overall treatment, both Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai and Sun Zarra were stuck in a time wrap when it came to storyline and treatment. Not surprisingly the audience enjoyed the ride of Taxi No. 9211 rather than munching popcorn along with the mushy drama of HTPH and Sun Zarra. Taxi No. 9211 opened decently and has been showing improvement as days progress through positive word of mouth. This medium budget movie should be able to sail through comfortably in the end. In contrast neither HTPH nor Sun Zarra have showed any promise whatsoever since the release and should end their run in a fortnight from now.
Last week's movies
Out of the 5 movies released last week, only two survived to gain entry into the second week. Remaining three, Rafta Rafta - The Speed, Faltu and Aisa Kyon Hota Hai? were complete washouts with near to nil collections. Neither were they publicized well nor were the audiences excited about the starcast, subject, treatment or the music to venture into the theatres.
'Fight Club' had an average first week with collections reaching close to 5 crore mark. One would have expected that the movie may be able to sail through in the end if the film could sustain in the second week but looking at absence of any word of mouth and tha target audience (teenagers) busy with their board exams, it would be a tough run for the movie to reach the coverage mark. Mumbai and Delhi were again the two cities that got the maximum moolah for the movie that was near 80 lakhs and 70 lakhs respectively.
Chingari's fuse was gone before it could be ignited and was a disaster all over after the end of week one. With collections failing to touch even a 1 crore mark, the picture is pretty clear for this Kalpana Lajmi film. One of the poorest ever opening for a Sushmita Sen film, it couldn't garner decent collections at any of the centers across country. Audience proved once again that they would venture into a 'different' cinema provided it shows some promise at the least!
From the past
'Holiday' had the biggest ever crash for a film coming from the house of Bhatts as it fell as much as 95% in its second week, which means that there were practically no takers after a one week run. Since the first week too was hardly anything but exciting, the movie has more or less ended its run with a sub 1-crore figure. One of the biggest flops of Dino Morea ever, his only consolation comes from 'Aksar' that has enjoyed a decent outing. In contrast 'Mixed Doubles' surprisingly did reasonably better than number of other movies running during last week and added in another 40 lakhs to its kitty. Though the film is still a trifle away from the 1 crore mark, it is at least giving a decent fight at the box office. Since it comes with a 'typical multiplex film' tag with it, it has an outside chance of recovery if it survives for a couple of weeks more.
'Aksar' fell further in its 3rd week but still a total of approximately 70 lakhs in the 3rd week were good enough to bring the movie near 8 crores. The movie should make its exit around 8.5 crore but its DVD release in a week's time should further bring in some money as people may check it out just for the songs. 'Mere Jeevan Saathi' continued to crash in its 3rd week and is now almost out of the theatres with 2.5 crore collections.
'Rang De Basanti' continues its victory march as it continues to register good collections. For the first time in its 4 week run have the movie's collections been less than 1 crore in both Mumbai and Delhi though overall RDB has still been performing way better than the competition that has come since its release. Approximately 4.5 crores were added on to its total that now stands at 39 crores.
In the future
Harry Baweja's 'Teesri Aankh - The Hidden Camera' is the sole release of coming Friday but that too doesn't show much promise for this Sunny-Amisha-Neha starrer that seems to have lost more than having gained from the controversy about Sunny'a appearance in the film. Overall too the film bears a jaded look while action seems repetitive. The music has been a non-starter too while the subject doesn't promise much for the family audiences. It would require some real good heroics from Sunny [in case he is 'really' the 'hero'] to bail this movie out as at the face level it doesn't seem to be an exciting preposition at the box office.