Who’s neighing in the box-office stable

Dark horse ‘Wrong No’ outpaces ‘Bin Roye’ at the local box office as ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ gallops to the...

KARACHI:

A lot was said about the triple trouble Bollywood’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Pakistani films Bin Roye and Wrong No posed each other at the local box office this Eidul Fitr. But as expected, Salman Khan seems to have pinned both the Pakistani films and reigned over the holiday-weekend throne.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan managed to rake in Rs37 million during the first two days of Eid. The film earned around Rs17 million on the first day and Rs20 million on the second. According to sources, the total box-office collection for Bajrangi Bhaijaan during the first three Eid holidays is estimated to be around Rs45 million.

But the real surprise during this three-way race has been Yasir Nawaz’s raunchy comedy Wrong No, which has managed to outdo Momina Duraid’s Bin Roye. With Wrong No’s box office collections totalling up to Rs7.5 million on the first day of Eid against Bin Roye’s Rs5.5 million, the comedy film outpaced the star-studded romantic-drama.



Several local cinema owners had earlier pointed out Wrong No as the ‘dark horse’ in the box-office derby and had even drawn parallels with last year’s Na Maloom Afraad, which picked up during its second week at the box office. Wrong No managed to earn Rs25 million during the three days of Eid, which was substantiated by ARY Films.

Despite finishing third during its opening weekend, Bin Roye has managed to do reasonably well both domestically and internationally. Business for Bin Roye picked up on the second day of Eid as it recorded a 45 per cent increase by earning Rs8 million. Sources revealed that the total box-office collection for Bin Roye was Rs20 million. Officials from Eveready Pictures didn’t corroborate the figures for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Bin Roye till this report was filed.



The majority of the earnings for Bin Roye have stemmed from the Punjab circuit, as it houses a greater number of screens as compared to Sindh. Khurram Gultasab, general manager of Super Cinemas, stated, “Although both the Pakistani films are performing really well right now, the audiences’ demand for Bin Roye has been generally higher.” Initially starting out at 83 screens, the number of screens for Bin Roye has gone up to 89 after its performance on the first two days. The movie has even managed to attract international audiences, especially in Dubai. “A cinema in Dubai has increased the number of shows for Bin Roye because of the impressive turnout,” said a source.

As the Eid weekend draws to a close, Farrukh Rauf, director of Capri Cinema stated that it’ll only be possible for exhibitors to gauge the real box-office strength of the films currently being screened in cinemas after the holidays. “Almost all the shows are currently being played to packed houses, but it’ll be when the extended Eid holidays will end that we’ll be able to determine what movie actually performed well,” he said.

Rauf added that owing to Eid holidays, cinema-owners also had the luxury of playing late-night shows from 12:00am to 3:00am, but as the weekend ends, they’d be forced to scrap that slot. With Pakistani films and Salman’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan eating into the majority of the box-office earnings, the business for international films, such as Ant-Man and Terminator Genisys, has taken a hit. Distributors and exhibitors have already mentioned how they’d allocate more shows for Bin Roye and Wrong No during the coming weekend.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd,  2015.

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