Box Office – Phantom Shows Fantastic Jump On Day Two

For a film where not many were willing to bet their money, Phantom has managed to surprise quite a few, especially the cynics who were expecting it to become another thorn in the flesh for Saif Ali Khan. However, audience likes what they saw and the action packed narrative by Kabir Khan coupled with wonderful production values by Sajid Nadiadwala meant that Phantom went on to find an escalation in footfalls.

In fact this only makes one wonder how so many from within the industry are more than willing to spoil the chances of a film coming from their own fraternity when instead they should be supporting it. Of course a sheer bad film needs to be discounted and ignored. However, when a film like Phantom – for which word of mouth has ranged from being ‘theek-thaak’ to decent to good to very good – arrives, it is surprising to see some scathing comments coming its way, even when audience is willing to give it a dekko.

Nevertheless, the game is not yet over for Phantom. First and foremost target for the film is to go past the 30 crore mark over the weekend, which is now a cakewalk. In fact if the film maintains the same collections as Saturday, even 35 crore is possible, which would be fantastic. Post that, it needs to be stable through the weekdays as well so that by the time it comes towards the end of week, it is in a safe zone. Welcome Back arrives on the coming Friday while Hero releases a week after, which means Phantom has to make the most of it this week, so as to keep sailing through in weeks to come.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder