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Over the years, there have been several films which found critical acclaim, but failed to leave a mark at the Box-Office. There are ample of examples of such films like Masaan, Death In The Gunj, Mukkabaaz, Aakhon Dekhi, Trapped, Aligarh and Titli to name a few. The above-mentioned films didn’t have sellable face, and the critic reviews getting the audience on board was out of question. Then comes the second kind of films like Lootera, Blackmail, and Finding Fanny which had sellable stars in lead, got the desired critical acclaim but the same didn’t quite translate into the Box-Office collections
That get’s us to the discussing point of this article i.e. does critical acclaim ever translate into the ticket sales or is it just a myth? There are certain kind of films which are high on content, but the treatment is more in the art zone, which never excites the cinema going audience.
Take the example of recently released film, October, which is the best reviewed film of 2018 with several reviewers going ahead with 5-star rating, which is an extremely rare feat to attain. However, the trailer of the film hinted dull treatment.
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It is the lack of entertainment factor in the film, which kept a major chunk of audience away and given the initial word of mouth, which is mixed, the film well might emerge the first unsuccessful film for Varun Dhawan as far as theatrical run is concerned.
The film took a slow start at the Box-Office on Friday, but the biz escalated by a considerable amount on Saturday. However, this is a common trend for films aimed at the multiplex audience and expectedly so, the film fell flat on Sunday. Considering yearly inflation and GST factor, the opening weekend biz of October (Rs 20.25 crore) was like Lootera (2013), which collected approximately Rs 17.50 crore in its 3-day run. The lifetime biz of October is now expected to end much below Badlapur (2015), i.e. the film would fall short of the Rs 50 crore mark at the Box-Office and this is not something that the trade expects of Dhawan.
The problem here isn’t with the stardom of the young-star, who is taking long strides with every passing film to become the next superstar of the industry, but it is the genre which is to be blamed here. Without second thoughts, among all the films directed by Shoojit Sircar i.e. Yahaan, Vicky Donor, Madras Café, Piku, and October, Varun Dhawan was the biggest star that the director has worked with, but still the opening day collections are lower than films like Madras Café, and Piku.