It was a very poor weekend for Bollywood as just about Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) came in.
The capacity available over a weekend is over Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) if one takes into account all the theatres that screen Hindi movies. So the kind of numbers that have come in signify that the overall occupancy was merely 5 percent.
This sums up the disastrous times the industry has been facing with neither good movies coming in nor audiences being enticed enough to watch even the reasonably decent ones.
The last three-four months have been disastrous with nothing really working at the box office (except event films like Stree 2).
What’s worse is that there are no films releasing in theatres either.
Last weekend was no exception, and the onus fell on holdover releases like Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video and Jigra. The former was just okay in the first week whereas the latter had flopped already. As a result, VVKWWV extended its collections by around Rs 6 crore* (Rs 60 million) in the second weekend while Jigra brought in around Rs 5 crore* (Rs 50 million).
Overall, VVKWWV may stretch to Rs 38-40 crore (Rs 380-400 million) lifetime collections while Jigra will aim for Rs 33-35 crore (Rs 330-350 million), which goes on to show how dull the scenario has become.
Hopefully, Diwali releases Singham Again and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 will reverse the trend.
*Estimates. Final numbers awaited.
Note: All collections as per various box office sources.