Friday 12 July 2013

Movie releases 12 July 2013 - Box Office Prediction

Many movies getting released today, but only two of them are of any particular interest. In other words, 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag' and 'Pacific Rim' should get some opening while 'Shorts', 'Sixteen' and 'Boyss to Boyss hain' will be a wash out having no chance to making any impact at box office.

Bhaag Milkha Bhaag

Movie has been getting rave reviews not only from critics and trade analysts, but also from the other senior actors in the industry. Promos have been focused mainly on how Farhan Akhtar really turned himself into every inch of the character. Songs have become popular, they look quite refreshing and different. But something tells me that it is not going to get huge opening, certainly not in the single screens as it appears to have content that suits the audience who liked detailing and subtlety.

First Weekend: 19 Crore+
First Week: 27 Crore+
Lifetime: 35 Crore+

Pacific Rim

I am really excited about this movie. It is promoted as a big machine vs big monster movie, and it has worked for me. However, I feel that it has been under-promoted, and that also to make sure that expectations are kept in check. I guess makers didn't wanted audience to expect anything more than a fight among huge monsters, and then over-deliver in the movie. Early review of the movie has been good and I am expecting to have a blast in the theater.

First Weekend (India): 12 Crore+
First Week (India): 20 Crore+
Lifetime: 25 Crore+

Friday 21 June 2013

Movie releases 21 June 2013 - Box Office Prediction

Two relatively well promoted medium budget Bollywood movies are getting released tomorrow - Raanjhanaa and Shortcut Romeo.

Raanjhanaa
Raanjhanaa marks the debut of Dhanush in Bollywood, after his successful song 'Kolaveri Di' but failed with his Tollywood debut. However, this time music of the film is the biggest plus point. AR Rehman's score has really become popular and has been topping the charts on all music channels and radio channels. Promotion of the movie has basically been around the music, which has worked since the movie is able to create a lot of buzz. Another talking point related to the movie is about how Dhanush has been able to talk and dub in Hindi. Promos has been impressive as they give the hint of the story and generate interest in the movie. Sonam Kapoor and Abhay Deol are also looking good.

First Weekend: 10 Crore +
First Week: 16 Crore +
Lifetime: 25 Crore+

Shortcut Romeo
Shortcut Romeo marks the return of Neil Nitin Mukesh and Ameesha Patel. Music catches the attention, but it hasn't impressed at all. Some of the songs are quite irritating, and makes you change the channel. Interview of the star cast talking highly of the music is not helping their credibility either. Promotion of this movie has been around music and some action scenes. Action scenes in the promos might be the only thing that can work in this movie's favor. Most irritating thing about the movie's promo has been the irritating face of Neil Nitin Mukesh, it seems he is trying too hard to impress. Unless and until movie's word of mouth is very good, it won't help Neil's credibility and the movie's collections

First Weekend: 6 Crore +
First Week: 10 Crore+
Lifetime: 14 Crore+

Thursday 13 June 2013

Movie releases 14 June 2013 - Box Office Prediction

Two relatively major Bollywood movies are releasing tomorrow along with a summer blockbuster from Hollywood - Man of Steel.

Fukrey
Marketed as a reminder of those days of indulgence - college days, Fukrey marks the return of Pulkit Samrat in a completely new look and 3 others. Music of this movie is topping the charts and this should help this otherwise hopelessly faceless movie. It could be seen in the promos that this movie is produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, while Music is by Ram Sampath. This movie should get low opening but some opening.

Weekend: 4-5 crores
1st Week: 8-10 Crores
Lifetime: 12-14 Crores

Ankur Arora Murder Case
Another movie which is marketed quite differently. There is no music (at least nothing memorable), but story is quite apparent. I don't see this movie generating a buzz before the opening. Promos shows a new comer as an intern who turns on his idol as grows a conscious after a medical negligence happened while an operation was in progress. There is also a court room drama waiting for the viewers featuring Paoli Dam. This could help the movie, but only if the WOM for the movie is good.

Weekend : 3-4 Crores
1st Week: 7-8 Crores
Lifetime: 10-11 Crores

Man of Steel
Much awaiting movie from '300' fame Zack Synder is finally hitting the theaters tomorrow. Superman is very popular in India, and promos suggest that Superman is looking much more realistic and soulful this time. Promos also suggest that fight is going to physical as opposed to mind game in previous superman movies. Ratings on RottenTomatoes and IMDB may hurt this movie, though a blockbuster opening is guaranteed. I think this will make more than double of above mentioned movies combined.

Weekend: 25+ Crores
1st Week: 35 Crores
Lifetime: 45+ Crores

Thursday 6 June 2013

Movie releases 07 June 2013 - Box Office Prediction

Yamla Pagla Deewana 2
Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 or YPD2 is releasing tomorrow and is promising to be good watch. Full marks to the promo designer, it has generated quite a bit of interest among casual movie goers. Deols could be seen on any TV channel promoting this movie, which is quite unlike them. Sunny Deol has brought up the point of doing so much promotion being the waste of money and time in almost every single interview he did while promoting this movie. While it is very nice to see Sunny Deol appearing in interviews and seeing how they are making effort to promote their movie, I don't see how their promotion would have attracted the young crowd.

So I guess youth would still be looking to watch YJHD, which has broken almost all records (apart from fastest to 100 crores) so far. Due to this reason, multiplexes would like to give more screen space to YJHD which has trended very well in weekdays. It won't be a surprise that YJHD will gross more than YPD2 on Friday, while Word-of-mouth may balance out Saturday count. Also, popularity of Ranbir and negativity against Sunny Deol among print media could affect the public perception of the movie's quality.

This movie has decent music, however lack of variety (overdose of Punjabiness) can hurt its popularity. At the surface YPD2 looks like a promising bet from the audience's perspective. It promises good fun time in the cinema hall, so that should do the trick. Being a huge fan of Sunny Deol, I am not going to miss it for anything else.

1st Weekend: 30 Crore +
1st Week: 45 Crore +
Lifetime Collections: 65 Crores +

Thursday 30 May 2013

Movie releases 31 May 2013 - Box Office Prediction

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is releasing tomorrow, and it is the only movie releasing tomorrow. This is something that happens rarely in bollywood these days, as big movies are often clashing with each other. This movie seems to have got a month before any solid big-budget movie is getting released. Dharma Productions seems to have stuck gold with the release timing.

Marketing of the movie has been centered around - Ranbir and Deepika coming back together for one last time again. In every single interview, press conference, and promotion, they have been talking about how it was not a big deal for both of them to get back to working together. Both of them have been quite successful recently, Ranbir has been riding on the success of Barfi while Deepika gave a rocking performance in Cocktail. All songs from the movie have been popularized well, album is a nice mix of tracks for different mood.

Hit lead pairing, good music, good production house values, good director, and finally a solid supporting caste, this movie has everything to do a bumper opening at the box office. It should not be a surprise if this movie cross 100 crore within first two weeks, as it only needs to get around 70% occupancy to get second biggest opening of the year due to its release size. Unless the content is really bad, I don't see how this movie will not make profit for Karan Johar.

Prediction: 
First weekend: 45-50 crores.
First week: 75-80 crores
Lifetime: 115-125 crores

Thursday 23 May 2013

Movie releases 24 May 2013 - Box Office Prediction

Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke  

This simply looks like a joke of a film in the disguise of a comedy film. Marketing of the movie has been basically themed around a new upcoming star having fun with three veterans playing supporting cast, also having fun. All scenes shown are completely unrelated to each other, and there is no clue what the story is about, not that I was really trying to figure out. Though there have been movies successful that way, but they have been few and far in between. I don't think the music is popular, don't hear anyone requesting them on radio.
Prediction: less than 3 crore weekend and less than 5 crore lifetime collection (Generous as I doing this first time here)

Zindagi 50-50

I am guess I might be the only one talking about it as of now apart from the makers. Veena Malik in an intimate scene has been center figure of all the promos of this movie. I can understand that there is a market for such movie thanks to Mahesh Bhatt, but you need a good music to pull that one too.
Prediction: Less than a crore weekend, and max 2 crore lifetime

Ishkq In Paris

To be fair, this is one movie releasing this weekend that has good music and impressive star cast, even though only one of the lead pair is known. Marketing of the movie is basically centered around good music and cool locations of Paris, making it obvious that this movie is targeted to youth. It also means that cost of  production can't be less than 10-15 crores, so it needs to make at least 25 so that distributors can make profit.  I am afraid I don't see this movie making that much.
Prediction: Weekend : 5-7 crores, 1st Week: 10-11 crores, 15 Lifetime (again a generous figure)

Fast and Furious

One of the most awaited movie this year, after Iron Man 3, this franchise has some fan following in India. Promo is very good and I like the last scene where a car break out of the airplane. Background score looks good and Dwayne The Rock Johnson is back in action with Vin Diesel. I think this movie should have a good weekend
India Prediction:  Weekend: 10-12 crores, 1st Week: 20 crores, Lifetime: 30-35 crore

Sunday 31 March 2013

Sajid Khan's Himmatwala got very bad reviews from trade analysts

This has almost never happened before. All critics united and in arms over their verdict of Himmatwala. Biggest surprise of them are - Komal Nahta and Taran Adarsh. I knew there was something dicey since neither Sajid Khan nor any member of Himmatwala's cast turned up on Komal Nahta's show on ETC Bollywood before the release of movie. Sajid Khan himself said during the promotion of Housefull 2 that if there is anyone who he respect in this industry, Komal Nahta is definitely one of them. So, there is definitely something there between Sajid Khan or UTV and these renowned trade-analysts, and it doesn't seem to be all good.

Sajid Khan didn't helped himself or his movie either when he kept on talking down on the critical reception of Himmatwala. Sajid Khan is known for not giving a damn about critical reception of his movies, this time also he didn't asked for anything from critics as he openly said he knows his audience and make movies for them only.
Sajid Khan said he doesn't want even half star for Himmatwala

But this is the not the reason why movie has fallen on Saturday. Housefull 2 also got 1-2 stars from most critics and reviewers but went on to do 100-crore business and word of mouth was good too, at least that's what trade analysts said about it. Yes, that's what seems to be the difference here. Taran Adarsh, who has liked every single movie ever released is saying that Himmatwala fails as a film and Komal Nahta who defied all other critics by giving huge thumbs up to 'Rowdy Rathore' is saying that youth will reject this movie. Both of them are quite big on social media sites like twitter and their word is taken quite seriously by not only their followers but also but also by whoever read their reviews. Komal Nahta in particular is like a go-to person on twitter to know about the buzz and word-of-mouth of a movie. So, if these two geniuses are saying that movie is not good, public perception is going to suffer from Himmatwala's point of view.

Is this an attempt by these trade-analysts to legitimize their previous reviews and verdicts when most people used to make fun of their reviews saying they are sold out? Is this movie really the worst possible ever in Bollywood history? We all know that Sajid Khan promised a movie that will be full for hamming and bad jokes but entertaining. If any of us were expecting something like 'Schindler's list' from Himmatwala, then who is at fault!!