All the three new releases this week — Mere Pyare Prime Minister, Milan Talkies and Photograph — have opened to dismal numbers at the box office. Of the three, director Ritesh Batra’s Photograph had the highest opening with a collection of Rs25 lakh nett, as per figures shared by BoxOfficeIndia.com.
When the film with the best opening has such a poor number, you can imagine how the others must have fared.
No buzz was created around Photograph by its producers and the reviews were also mostly just average. This seems to have hurt the film despite having Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Sanya Malhotra leading the cast.
The producers of Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Milan Talkies did work harder to create some awareness about the film, but the negative reviews and word-of-mouth have not helped their cause. Starring Ali Fazal and Shraddha Srinath, the film collected just Rs15 lakh nett on its opening day.
According to trade sources, Milan Talkies has been made at a cost of just Rs10 crore. But the first-day collection does not induce any confidence that the film will be able to recover its cost.
Mere Pyare Prime Minister, meanwhile, had a shocking opening-day collection of just Rs8 lakh nett! Directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and starring Anjali Patil, this film was made on a budget of just Rs7 crore. But even this low budget now appears like a mountain to climb.
Meanwhile, Sujoy Ghosh's Badla, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu, showed a good jump on its second Friday yesterday. The film had collected Rs3.50 crore nett on Thursday and the Friday figure went up to Rs3.75 crore nett. Made on an estimated budget of Rs24 crore, Badla's grand total domestic collection currently stands at an impressive Rs41.10 crore nett.
Hollywood film Captain Marvel also fared well on its second Friday, earning Rs3 crore nett on the day. The film has gone ahead of Badla in India collections, taking its total to Rs59.25 crore nett till now.