The Friday before the Ganpati festival, August 29, saw as many as seven releases, four Bollywood and three Hollywood films. The list includes English films Wall-E, Wanted and Caramel, as well as director Farhan Akhtar?s acting and singing debut Rock On, Pyramid Saimira?s Mukhbir, Balaji camp?s C KKompany and Bobby Deol and Priyanka Chopra starrer Chamku. Film trade analyst Amod Mehra said, ?Although it?s too early to comment on the box office results, Chamku and Mukhbir just did not take off. Both have got less than 10% opening at the box office.? Mehra says, although Rock On has managed to get 40-50% opening, it is the English films which are doing better. Wanted, which had lesser number of shows compared to Hindi films, had a confirmed booking of 70-80%.
Bhumika Tewari, AVP programming, Fun Cinemas, said, ?This week, audiences will get a variety of films to choose from.? On Fun Cinemas, Rock On has opened at 35?40%, C KKompany and Chamku at 15%, Mukhbir 10%, Wall E 15% and Wanted 10%. ?We expect Chamku and C KKompany to pick up the box office collection by this weekend,? adds Tewari. ?The box office collection last week was good with Ram Gopal Varma?s Phoonk getting the maximum response from the audiences especially youngsters than the other two films Mumbai Meri Jaan and Maan Gaye Mughalle Azam.?
The official spokesperson of Adlabs said, ?Rock On seems to be the winner. It has got great early reviews and is being heavily promoted.? Adlabs also feels that the curiosity factor around Farhan Akhtar in his debut as an actor and as well as the rest of the cast has given the film an edge over the others.
Amongst the English movies, there was maximum curiosity around Wall-E, mostly because it?s a Disney Pixar animation film, a genre which is doing well in India. Sometime back, DreamWorks released its film Kung Fu Panda in India, which got very good opening at the box-office.
Vinod Mirani, film trade analyst, said, ?Rock On will get good opening because there was heavy marketing around the film.? He added that C KKompany will also catch up and according to Mirani it is a good film. However, for the other two Hindi films – Chamku and Mukhbir, Mirani feels there is not much hope. ?Both lacked marketing,? said Mirani. After two slag quarters, the month of August was good for both exhibitors and producers. There were some big budget films including Singh is Kinng, which analysts say has raked in a net profit of Rs 40 crore in India. Second, Yash Raj Productions Bachna Ae Haseeno has so far generated Rs 15 crore net profit pan-India and last week?s release Phoonk?s net profit is in the tune of four and a half to five crore rupees.