Six days into its run, I'm Game has lost more than 1,000 screens compared to its opening weekend, and the weekday numbers tell you exactly why theatres pulled shows. On its first Tuesday, the Dulquer Salmaan starrer earned just 1.12 crore net domestically, per Koimoi, with close to 800 screens vanishing between Monday and Tuesday alone.

The topline figures differ slightly depending on who's counting. Koimoi puts the six-day domestic net at 21.62 crore, which works out to a gross of 25.51 crore, with the worldwide total at 42.76 crore after adding 17.25 crore from overseas. Track Tollywood has the tracked gross a touch higher at 22.74 crore, with actuals closer to 26 crore domestic and a worldwide figure around 43 crore. Either way, this is not the number a film with Dulquer's star pull and a reported budget this size was hoping to be discussing on day six.

The bigger story is what I'm Game gave up to get here. It was originally slated to clash with Prithviraj Sukumaran's Khalifa this Onam, a face-off Malayalam trade had circled for weeks. Days before release, I'm Game pulled out and went solo instead. It didn't matter. Both films underperformed, and Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, starring Nivin Pauly, ended up owning the festival window.

Now the two films that avoided each other find themselves in an unlikely race anyway. Khalifa is in its third week and running on fumes, daily collections under 10 lakh, its 20-day worldwide total sitting at 45.09 crore. I'm Game is less than 3 crore from clearing that number and is also closing in on Vismaya Mohanlal's Thudakkam, at 45.16 crore globally. Beating two films that are themselves considered disappointments isn't much of a flex, but for a film whose weekday chart looks like this, it's the milestone available.

In Kerala, the pattern was clear from day two. Audiences liked the first half. The second half got flattened by word of mouth, and several fans have pointed out online that the film might have held up better had it actually released during Onam rather than dodging the crowd.

Director Nahas Hidhayath's last outing, RDX, closed at a worldwide gross of 84 crore and was read as a genuine surprise hit. I'm Game, his follow-up, marks Dulquer's 40th film as an actor and his first pairing with Kayadu Lohar, alongside Antony Varghese and Mysskin, produced by Dulquer's own Wayfarer Films. Whether it finishes ahead of Khalifa by the weekend, or falls short of even that low bar, should be clear within the next couple of days.