Box Office – Varun Dhawan’s October Weekend Shows Yet Again That Star Ratings Don’t Really Matter

October hasn’t done well at the Box Office. The film opened much below expectations (at least 7-8 crore seemed possible on the first day but only 5.04 crore came in) and then the follow through over the weekend wasn’t on the desirable lines either. As a result, the film just about managed to reach the 20.25 crore mark and that’s pretty low if one looks at the credentials involved.

A Varun Dhawan film is special, so much so that even his realistic films like Badlapur manage decent numbers over the weekend [23.50 crore] and then maintain a steady run to reach a good lifetime total. In case of October, despite the fact that it is niche, the kind of numbers that it has managed are just not the kind that one associates with the young superstar.

One look at the weekend numbers of Varun Dhawan films below and you get the picture:

Dilwale – Rs. 64.09 crore (Shah Rukh Khan as main lead)

Judwaa 2 – Rs. 59.25 crore

ABCD – Any Body Can Dance 2 – Rs. 46.35 crore

Badrinath Ki Dulhania – Rs. 43.05 crore

Dishoom – Rs. 37.32 crore (with John Abraham)

Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania – Rs. 33.74 crore

Student of the Year – Rs. 25.30 crore (with Sidharth Malhotra)

Badlapur – Rs. 23.50 crore

Main Tera Hero – Rs. 22.73 crore

October – Rs. 20 crore

The list also establishes yet again that reviews and plethora of stars that decorate such films aren’t of much use as audiences eventually have their own say. A Judwaa 2 or Badrinath Ki Dulhania may be panned by the critics but they end up scoring quite well universally. On the other hand an October may get 4-5 star ratings but eventually even elite picks and chooses such cinema as per their will and mood.

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources