Mixed response at the BO

While Friday and Saturday saw a decent turnout in the theatres, Sunday saw a dip, because of the Indian Premier League finale between Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab. “Citylights witnessed marginal growth over the weekend, but not enough to create an impact. Kuku Mathur Ki Jhand Ho Gayi found very few takers coming its way. Both the films failed to register a decent start. I must also mention that the business on Sunday was affected due to the IPL 2014 finale,” stated trade expert Taran Adarsh. Despite of the critical acclaim and positive word-of-mouth publicity, Citylights earned Rs.70 lakhs on Friday, Rs.1.32 crore on Saturday and Rs. 1.55 crore on Sunday. At the PVR chain of multiplexes in Mumbai, the average occupancy for Citylights was 30 per cent, while Kuku Mathur... was 15 per cent over the first weekend. “The National Award winner Rajkummar Rao has received a lot of praise for his performance, so we expect a slight increase in the occupancy of Citylights during the weekdays, as the reviews for the movie have been good,” stated Gautam Dutta, COO – PVR Cinemas. Manoj Desai of G7 wasn’t very happy with the way the two films have performed. Citylights managed to get around 50 per cent occupancy, while Kuku Mathur stood at 70 per cent. “But the weekend occupancy for both the films had dropped drastically, almost as low as 20 – 40 per cent,” quipped Desai.

Hero dominates

Sabbir Khan’s Heropanti had a decent run during the second weekend as well. With ` 2.07 crore coming in on Friday, Rs. 2.59 crore on Saturday and Rs.3.63 crore on Sunday, the film sure had an edge over the other releases. While the average occupancy at PVR stood at 30 per cent, Desai mentioned that G7 cinemas saw 80 per cent occupancy during the second weekend. Adarsh adds, “Heropanti surely continued to dominate the ticket counters. The film is a hit and despite scathing criticism coming its way, the public has given its mandate to this entertainer.” The Rajinikanth-starrer Kochadaiiyaan saw average weekend occupancy of 35 per cent in all languages at the PVR chain of cinemas.

International scenario

Angelina Jolie’s return to the big screen almost after four years, with Disney’s Maleficent earned $ 100.6 crore worldwide, with $ 70 million coming in from their home market. “The occupancy of Maleficent was approximately 30 per cent in both the IMAX and 3D versions at PVR. The response is good,” adds Dutta. In India, the second weekend for X-Men: Days Of The Future Past continued to be strong, as the film collected Rs. 7.1 crore in three days (Friday – Rs.1.6 crore, Saturday – Rs.2.7 crore and Sunday -Rs.2.9 crore); taking the grand total to Rs.33.8 crore at the domestic box-office.
With the IPL season over and big films up for release in the coming months, the focus will finally shift back to cinema. June 6 will see the Akshay Kumar – Sonakshi Sinha starrer Holiday: A Solder Is Never Off Duty, National Award winning film Filmistaan and the Tom Cruise starrer Edge of Tomorrow, fighting it out at the box-office. “We have a lot of expectations from the films coming up, especially Holiday…, since it has a good star cast, the promos look good and it is Murugadoss’ second film after Ghajini,” mentioned Desai. Dutta adds, “There is a high level of expectation from Holiday… and Filmistaan. Edge of Tomorrow is also expected to receive a good response especially in IMAX screens.”