performance of latest release BOLLYWOOD MOVIES

performance of latest release BOLLYWOOD MOVIES

1920 has turned out to be a success for it's makers. This
period-horror flick, a unique combination in fact, has done well over
the weekend and stayed consistent to earn 3 crores net from India.
These are quite decent collections considering the mid-size release
that the film enjoyed, mainly newcomers staring from the billboards,
Ganesh Chathurthi and Ramzan being on and Delhi blasts disturbing the
inflow of audience on Saturday and Sunday (which are considered to be
the best days for a film's business). For a film budgeted at only 6.5
crores, the returns have been more than satisfactory, hence resulting
in Vikram Bhatt finally having a success in hand after 6 long years
(his last success was AWARA PAAGAL DEEWANA).

As was quite obvious even before the release of the film, RU BA RU
bombed at the box office after first show itself. There were no takers
for the film and that's understandable considering there was zero news
about a film by that name arriving at theaters. Poor reviews were last
nail in the coffin and result is that this Randeep Hooda - Shahana
Goswami starrer would be out of theaters in one week flat. A box
office failure which won't effect/surprise anyone except for it's
makers.

Sudden effort for creating hype around THE LAST LEAR seemed quite
suspicious to begin with, especially considering headlines screaming
'Big B's best performance ever'. With a proclamation like this being
literally on-your-face, it seemed fishy if THE LAST LEAR actually
carried such credentials. The viewers weren't enticed though by such
tall claims and lack of commercial elements meant that a film by
Rituparno Ghosh was rejected by mainstream audience in major part of
the country once again after CHOKER BALI and RAINCOAT. Sad, but true -
the man hasn't really been able to make his presence felt amongst that
segment of audience which actually brings in moolah!

Last week's movies

From the first week collections itself, it is crystal clear that A
WEDNESDAY has comfortably sailed through. The film has garnered more
than 3.25 crores and is still going strong in it's second week. This
has been a clear word of mouth and actually the only film this year
which opened at 15%-20% response and showed houseful signs as the week
progressed. Clearly a 'public ki choice' film, A WEDNESDAY has invoked
sentiments like never before in last so many months and is actually
gathering a cult status for itself. This small film crossed 1 crore
mark in Mumbai (tremendous) while Delhi too saw more than 40 lakhs
coming in. NCR further brought in 20 lakhs. Very impressive. The film
has worked across the country and is en route to gathering a hit
status for itself if it enjoys two more good weeks.

HIJACK has flopped and has turned out to be yet another example of a
film which people rejected even before seeing it. Reason behind that
is quite known by now and it would be repeating the obvious. However,
one feels for debutant director Kunal Shivdasani who was highly
optimistic about the fortunes of his action thriller in spite of his
lead cast being absolute 'thanda'. In any case, he has shown that he
is a fine technician and it should not be long before he bounces back
with a fresh project while roping in a saleable cast. The film
collected a mere 2 crores from across the country with 35 lakhs from
Mumbai and 30 lakhs from Delhi.

TAHAAN was never supposed to be a film which could have been taken
seriously at the box office and 35 lakhs in collections from across
the country more than proved this. This one would see a quick DVD
release.

From the past

Both CHAMKU and C KKOMPANY have failed at the box office and how. They
both crashed by more than 90% and had negligible collections to show
in their second week. In fact CHAMKU would easily find itself as a
forerunner of being the most major box office disaster of the year
with 13 lakhs in second week bringing it's collections to a mere 2
crores. Yet another huge setback for Bobby Deol from where it would
require quite an effort for him to be appearing in a solo lead again.
He has a consolation though in the form of DOSTANA which is a sure
fire success.

Tusshar Kapoor and company have gracefully accepted C KKOMPANY to be a
flawed product and moved on. In fact Tusshar is looking forward to
GOLMAAL RETURNS which is bound to be a huge success at the box office.
The film collected 30 lakhs more to get to 3.75 crores in collections.
However, this is yet another major failure for Ekta Kapoor after
MISSION ISTANBUL. Expect DVDs of both the films to be out on stands
soon.

ROCK ON continues to do exceedingly well at theaters all over. After a
terrific first week, the film has done very well in the second week as
well with third weekend being superb too. ROCK ON has been a one horse
race as it has gone from strength to strength throughout the week. Now
even in it's second week, the film has hardly seen a drop (less than
20%) when compared to the first week and netted around 8 crores more.
While Mumbai read 1.75 crores, Delhi has been good too with 1 crores
plus. Delhi NCR has garnered further 80 lakhs. An Abhishek Kapoor
directed film which is already a HIT, it may well turn out to be
SUPERHIT if it continues the same way for 10 more days.

MUMBAI MERI JAAN has managed to hold on reasonably well in some
centers which meant that third week fall was a reasonable 60%. With 35
lakhs more coming in, this low budget film now stands at 3.5 crores
and has turned out to be yet another safe venture for UTV, hence
bringing their record in 2008 to be cent percent. PHOONK too continued
to get some audience for itself and with 55% fall, added another 1
crore to it's collections. With this, PHOONK is now a 10 crores
success for Ram Gopal Varma whose next film would be seen in 2009 now.

BACHNA AE HASEENO is continuing to be a weekend watch for quite a few
cinegoers and a 55% fall meant that this Siddharth Anand film still
talks the language of crores. Garnering a little more than 1.5 crore,
BACHNA AE HASEENO has managed to cross the 36 crore mark and should
stretch to end at 38 crores. SINGH IS KINNG too fell by 55% and in the
process added 1.5 crores to it's total. At 74 crores and a Superhit
tag, it would fall short by a few lakhs when compared to Anees
Bazmee's last film WELCOME (which reads 76 crores). The only film
maker in the history of Bollywood to give as many as two 75 crores
runner, Anees Bazmee is today country's most sought after director
when it comes to commercial cinema.
In the future

Yet another week, yet another instance of three films releasing
simultaneously. However WELCOME TO SAJJANPUR, SAAS BAHU AUR SENSEX as
well as HULLA are hardly expected to create any 'hulla' whatsoever at
the box office. Expecting anything more than 20%-30% opening for any
of the three films would be a surprise! However, it's urban theme and
a catchy title may just result in SAAS BAHU AUR SENSEX picking up at
the box office if the word of mouth turns out to be favorable as well.