Neerja has exceeded expectations at the Box Office. The film was expected to open on a decent note and then see some gradual improvement on Friday, before seeing good jumps on Saturday and Sunday. However, the manner in which word of mouth has spread for the film, it is now quite apparent that this Ram Madhvani directed affair is here to stay for long. The film has been released on a good screen count and even though Sonam Kapoor is the only star value attached to it, there was good confidence shown by Fox in ensuring good returns.
As a result, the film took good strides by evening shows itself and Friday collections read 4.70 crore. These are quite good numbers for the film which is a biopic and not a hardcore commercial entertainer. For a niche and offbeat subject, Neerja has surprised just like Airlift had done four weeks back. Moreover, the film’s opening numbers become all the more important when looked at in light of the female centric flicks. Hence, if one counts out Sunny Leone’s erotic affairs like Jism 2, Ragini MMS 2 and Ek Paheli Leela, each of which took decent to good opening, Neerja compares with some of the best.
The film is set to take good jumps over Saturday and Sunday since the critical acclaim as well as word of mouth is unanimously positive. Fox had a task in hand to pitch the film well via marketing and distribution, which has paid off on Day One itself, hence resulting in Neerja turning out to be a success story.
Meanwhile, Loveshhuda got a good release too as it got good screen count for itself. However, it was overshadowed by Neerja on the first day. The collections are around 1 crore mark.
Direct Ishq and Ishq Forever got a minimal release in very few theaters, due to which collections are near to negligible.
Note: All collections as per production and distributor sources
