It was a black weekend for the Bollywood box office, as close to half a dozen new films arrived in theatres and all of them flopped!
Ek Chatur Naar, Heer Express, Love In Vietnam, Mannu Kya Karega and Jugnuma did not have any notable marketing and promotional campaign and their arrival in a crowd meant that audience awareness didn't work out either.
While Ek Chatur Naar was a comedy thriller, Heer Express and Mannu Kya Karega were designed as family entertainers.
Love In Vietnam was a love story and Jugnuma was art house cinema.
In addition, there was also a documentary called Unbroken based on cricketer Unmukt Chand.
Not more than two-three shows per multiplex were allocated to each of these movies and that sealed the fate for them on the opening day itself.
Barring Ek Chatur Naar, which managed Rs 1.04 crore (Rs 10.4 million), the opening numbers were in a few lakhs for the rest and even the combined total could not cross Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) mark.
The weekend collections of these films were in Rs 3 crore (Rs 30 million) range.
Ek Chatur Naar managed around Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million) and may aim for Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) lifetime.
The film that saw a reasonable release was the dubbed Hindi version of the Telugu film Mirai.
With an opening of Rs 1.75 crore (Rs 17.5 million) coming in, the weekend collections were around Rs 9 crore* (Rs 90 million).
That said, this Teja Sajja-starrer will be the only film that will still get some sort of footfalls until Jolly LLB 3 and Nishaanchi arrive this Friday.
*Estimates.
Note: All collections as per various box office sources.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
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