2022 ENDS ON A SAD NOTE AS CIRKUS FLOPS
A lot was expected from Cirkus, the last big release of 2022. In last week’s edition, we informed readers that the advance booking of the film is not upto the mark. Yet, it seemed like the film will open in the range of Rs. 10-13 crores. We had mentioned that if it opens in single digits, it’ll be a shocker.
Sadly, the worst fears came true as the spot bookings didn’t pick up and Cirkus ended up with the first day collections of just Rs. 6.50 crores. The reports were bad and hence, it saw a drop on Saturday, when it collected Rs. 6.25 crores. On Sunday, due to the big Christmas holiday, the collections jumped to Rs. 8 crores, which was not enough. The weekend collections, hence, were just Rs. 20.75 crores and this ideally should have been its first day earnings.
On Monday, Avatar: The Way Of Water and Drishyam 2 picked up but Cirkus had more than a 50% drop as compared to Friday. On its fourth day, it collected Rs. 2.75 crores. The collections in the next three days remained steady. This was a surprise as usually, a rejected film keeps falling with each passing day. Cirkus, however, is probably having an advantage of the holiday season. Hence, it might have some sort of respectable collections in the coming weekend, with the big January 1 holiday falling on Sunday. From Monday, January 2, however, it will have a major drop. While the first week’s collections will be in the range of Rs. 30 crores, it now remains to be seen if it’s able to cross the Rs. 40 crores mark in its lifetime.
2022 has not been a good year for the Hindi film industry as several biggies flopped. Drishyam 2’s surprise blockbuster success had given hope and all eyes were on Cirkus. What’s worse is that there’s no major release till Republic Day, when Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan arrives in cinemas. Fortunately, the theatres are safe as they’ll be playing Avatar: The Way Of Water. It held very well in the second week and by Thursday, it would have collected Rs. 285 crores at the Indian box office. It is expected to see another jump in the festive weekend when it’ll enter the Rs. 300 crores club.
Meanwhile, a Marathi film, Ved, will release tomorrow in Maharashtra and a few other centres. It marks the directorial debut of Riteish Deshmukh. The film also features him as an actor and his wife Genelia Deshmukh along with Jiya Shankar. Riteish and Genelia have also produced the movie. It is the remake of the 2019 Telugu film Majili, starring Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. The film has got decent advances and it can grow big time if the word of mouth is positive. Due to the debacle of Cirkus, it has got additional shows. A highlight of the film is the cameo of Salman Khan in the song ‘Ved Lavlay’.