The successful run of PK continued even as it started its second week. According to official sources, by the end of the second weekend, the film made `22.10 crore to take the total to `236.24 crore. Thursday being Christmas, the film did good business and made `27.55 crore. On Sunday, however a few religious groups demanded a ban on the film for hurting religious sentiments. “Because of that there were disturbances at some places,” says distributor and exhibitor Akshaye Rathi as he talks about one of his theatres in Bhilai that was vandalised on Sunday. “The staff was beaten by a mob of around 700 people. The scenario continued on Monday as well in and around Ahmedabad, Bhopal, etc. However, precautions have been taken and even the court has ruled out the demand,” says Rathi, who looks at an optimistic week ahead for the film. The overall response, however, has been good. Muralidharan, manager, Eros Cinema that is screening four shows of PK and has avoided any other film, says that the film has continued doing good business. “On an average, the occupancy is above 50 per cent. The last shows of Friday and Saturday and two shows of Sunday had close to 70 per cent occupancy. Even in the multiplexes, the film is witnessing a good run. Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Ltd, says the occupancy for the film has been 70 per cent on an average. Interestingly, the film has grossed `435.71 crore worldwide in 10 days, breaking multiple records across countries. Ugly’s fate Unfortunately, for the last week’s release, Ugly, the collection has been negligible. “Barring a few critics and a small section of the audience, nobody has been raving about it. Even the collection during the weekend has been a disaster. Monday too looks bad and there’s hardly any word-of-mouth to work for the film,” says Rathi. According to Manoj Desai, even in the single screen the- atre, Galaxy (Bandra, Mumbai) that has four shows of the film running, the collection hasn’t been up to the mark. “While the film is being loved by the audience, it is not translating into good returns,” he remarks. “'Ugly' has fared below expectations at the box-office with collection figures limited to lakhs throughout its opening three days. It has managed to end its first weekend with a little over `1.5 crore,” adds trade analyst Vinod Mirani. But Dutta begs to differ as he says that at PVR cinemas, Ugly has been a good count- er programming option for PK in metro cities. “It has has 52 per cent occupancy,” he adds. Other films While there have been no other major releases in Hindi, Badlapur Boys that released two weeks back has collected `7.5 lakh in its second week to take its two week total to `97.5 lakh according to Mirani. The Hindi version of 'Lingaa' that released last week also failed to attract enough audiences. “The footfall may improve in the coming days,” remarks Rathi. However, Dutta says that Lingaa is being screened only in a limited number of shows. “The Hindi version started slowly at the BO, but by Sunday the film has definitely seen an increase in audience turnout,” he adds. Of Night At The Museum 3 that released without much publicity he says, “The film did brisk business on Christmas day. Two Telugu films —Chinandana Nee Kosam and Mukunda, are both doing well in occupancy and collections.”
