Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is said to have surpassed the success of recent Hollywood movies like Transformers, Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, The Proposal and Hindi flicks like New York and Kambakht Ishq. Potter, that released last Thursday, garnered approximately 80% collections on its first day of release in India. According to Warner Brothers, the paid previews of the movie have collected around Rs 1.5 crore in India.
The film?s worldwide collections grossed at Rs 509 crore on the opening day. However, there was a slight drop in footfalls on Friday, wherein collections were between 50-60%. The worldwide revenue of the film so far is around $396.7 million (approximately Rs 1,943.83 crore).
Tushar Dhingra, COO, BIG Cinemas, said, ?Harry Potter had a good opening on its first day. With the huge revenues earned worldwide, the film gives a clear window of being a huge success.?Mahesh Bhatt?s Jashnn, which released a day after Harry Potter, had an extremely poor opening of 15%, which dropped to 10% from the second day.
Transformers had around 60% occupancy in multiplexes like PVR and Adlabs, while Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs managed to gross Rs 5 crore in its first 10 days in India. Another Hollywood movie, The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock, earned about Rs 55 lakh in its first week and may end up doing a business of Rs 80 lakh across the box office.
Meanwhile, among the Hindi film releases, Kabir Khan?s New York is still rock steady at theatres as it grossed around Rs 4.50 crore in its third week, standing to a total of around Rs 46 crore. However, the chartbuster in the month of July, Kambakth Ishq?s collections dipped around 70% in its second week and has managed to garner around Rs 43 crore.
Devang Sampat, vice president, Cinemax India said, ?The current buzz word in multiplexes is Harry Potter and the film has so far done good business. We are running eight shows at our multiplex and the film has made around 60-65% business across our chains. Besides, New York so far has proved to be the biggest hit of 2009 and is still doing a business of 30% in weekends.?
Last week?s releases, including Anil Kapoor?s Short Kut- The Con Is On, Arup Dutta?s Morning Walk and Pankaj Advani?s Sankat City, received a bad response at the box office. Short Kut so far has managed to make a business of Rs 6.75 crore and experienced a 30-40 % occupancy rate. Morning Walk garnered around Rs 30 lakh in 10 days and due to the bad performance of the film, shows at the multiplexes were cancelled on the second day. Sankat City was able to pull 20-25% audiences and garnered around Rs 50 lakh. Despite the dull reviews, the Hindi film industry is looking forward at the two big releases, Luck and Love Aaj Kal, which is due this month.