EID RELEASES BOMB BADLY
A lot was expected from the two big Eid releases – Bade Miyan Chote Miyan and Maidaan – even though the trailers had not done the trick. Yet, no one expected the collections to be outright disastrous. What saddened the industry was that despite great word of mouth, Maidaan didn’t take off.
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan was the bigger film and also had commercial elements to pull in the audience. But it opened at Rs. 15 crores, which was way low for such an expensive film. On Friday, April 19, the film dropped 50% to Rs. 7.50 crores and that sealed the fate of the film. There was a slight jump on Saturday (Rs. 8.25 crores) and Sunday (Rs. 8.75 crores). On Monday, it crashed as it collected Rs. 2.15 crores. The first week’s collections will be around Rs. 47-48 crores. At this rate, it’ll struggle to even cross the Rs. 60 or 65 crores mark.
Maidaan, on the other hand, opened with paid previews on Wednesday, April 10, and earned Rs. 2 crores. One expected the collections to at least treble on the Eid holiday. However, it collected just Rs. 4 crores. With word of mouth on its side, Friday collections should have been the same or more than Thursday. But on Friday, it accumulated just Rs. 3 crores. On Saturday, the film jumped to Rs. 5.85 crores and Rs. 6.25 crores on Sunday. This gave hope that Monday collections will be as much as Friday. But on Monday, it dropped to Rs. 1.50 crores. Tuesday saw a small jump as it collected Rs. 1.60 crores. The first week’s collections will be around Rs. 27-28 crores. If it keeps collecting at low levels, it’ll manage to cross the Rs. 40 crores mark.
Both films are quite expensive and have a cost of more than Rs. 225 crores. Hence, one can imagine the kind of losses that the makers will face. On top of that, there are hardly any exciting releases until June. As a result, the exhibition sector is in a sad state.
This probably explains why multiplexes decided to celebrate Cinema Lovers Day once again on Friday, April 19 when tickets will be sold for just Rs. 99. Even then, the advance booking of new and holdover releases is very poor.
Tomorrow, Do Aur Do Pyaar and Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 will be released. The latter, directed by Dibakar Banerjee, looks quite niche and will require a great word of mouth to pull in the audience. Do Aur Do Pyaar stars Vidya Balan, Pratik Gandhi, Ileana DCruz and Sendhil Ramamurthy and seems like a decent romcom. The buzz is very limited and if reports are positive, it stands a chance in the urban multiplexes.