In the week gone by, theaters across the country could well have given a good chunk of their employees a pre-Diwali week off! Considering the fact that there were hardly any footfalls for any of the new releases, Saat Uchakkey, Beiimaan Love, Fuddu, Anna and Motu Patlu: King Of Kings, it could just have helped had some of the multiplex screens being kept out of operations while night shows at the single screen theaters cancelled. After all, what’s the real point in theaters running to empty houses and reasonable money being spent on maintenance cost.
None of the new releases managed to make any kind of an impact in theaters and one doesn’t see much of a difference when they arrive on satellite either. It had just seemed that Saat Uchakkey would manage to do better with word of mouth coming into play but that didn’t happen either.
Beiimaan Love was panned by the critics all over. Fuddu lost the battle at the title stage itself. Anna was in news more for its attempts at gaining Tax-Free status than the actual content. Motu Patlu: King Of Kings has a good fan following in television but surprisingly was hardly in news before or after its arrival in theaters.
Box Office – Half a dozen releases but not even 10 crore in collections
As a result, the collective collections of these films stayed below 10 crore. On the other hand M.S. Dhoni – The Untold Story, which was in its third week, brought in 8 crore* more in its third week. The film currently stands at 129.15 crore* [Hindi, Tamil, Telugu] and is now the second highest grosser of the year after Sultan [301.5 crore].
It has still managed to get decent number of shows in the fourth week as well and the only new release that has a chance to get more numbers than the Dhoni saga in its first week is 31st October.
Mirzya has folded up around the 11 crore* mark in its two week run.
*Estimates. Final numbers awaited
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
