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Mahesh Bhatt’s Murder 2 is off to an absolutely flying start all over India. Whether it is in the multiplexes or the single-screen cinemas, the opening response to the Murder sequel has been phenomenal. The collections in the opening shows have been in the range of 70-100% which would be considered bumper for the budget at which the film has been made and also for the star cast. After all, except for Emraan Hashmi, the film doesn’t have many saleable names.
Says exhibitor Akshay Rathi, who owns a chain of cinemas in C.P. Berar, “Our entire chain is playing ‘Murder 2’. Collections are house full in Nagpur in all our cinemas, in Raipur, Amravati and Bhandara. In other centres, the film has recorded minimum 85% collections in spite of the rains. Dhamaka hai!”
The early morning show in Indore at PVR was about 95% of the capacity. Likewise, the morning show at Velocity multiplex in Indore drew around 80% of the house full, that too, in the big auditorium. The best part of the bumper start of ‘Murder 2’ is that the response is the same in ‘A’ and ‘B’ class centres. In other words, the film is behaving no differently in Delhi from U.P., Rajasthan or C.P. Berar. In Delhi, the collections at single-screen cinemas in the noon shows (12 o’clock) are as follows:- Delite Rs. 55,000; Sapna Rs. 40,400; Vishal Rs. 67,660; Samrat Rs. 30,801; Shiela Rs. 53,000; Seble Rs. 22,000. All these are enviable figures. And the position in Lucknow at Novelty and Sahu cinemas is no different. The story is the same even at Meerut (Nandan cinema), Rae Bareilly, Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Muzaffarnagar (where both the cinemas drew full houses).
Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt seem to have made the film on a controlled budget of around Rs. 6 to 8 crore. Add another Rs. 5 crore for the cost of promotion, marketing and release, and you have an investment of Rs. 11 to 13 crore. Keeping the satellite and audio rights for themselves, the Bhatt brothers sold the worldwide theatrical rights to Ponty Chadha who, incidentally, had also acquired the worldwide theatrical rights of the recently released hit, Ready. Chadha, who acquired the rights for Rs. 14 crore, will also make a handsome profit. Firstly, he sold the rights for some of the circuits to individual distributors while retaining the distribution rights for Delhi-U.P. and East Punjab for himself as he is Delhi-based. Not just Chadha but also the distributors of the various circuits will make money on their investments. In other words, ‘Murder 2’ has become an earning proposal for all associated with the film. While the producers made profits before release, the distributors seem set to reap the benefits now.
Unfortunately, Salman Khan’s promotion doesn’t seem to have helped Chillar Party one bit. For, the initial of the UTV production venture is poor. Audience attendance at multiplexes is said to be low. In some cinemas, there are 8 to 10 people whereas in others, there are 20 to 40 in the cinema hall. From the preliminary reports filtering in, the attendance on the higher side is 70 to 80 people per show. Seems Salman Khan and Ranbir Kapoor (on whom a song in the film has been picturised) could not do together what Emraan Hashmi has single-handedly done! Put differently, ‘Murder 2’ has murdered the prospects of ‘Chillar Party’.
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