One film is defying seventh-week fatigue with Rs 271 crore in the bank, while another with a starrier cast is watching its numbers fall off a cliff after just four days.
Two very different box office stories are playing out this week, and they say a lot about how unpredictable the Hindi film business has become.
Hanuman Ansh, 46 days into its run, added Rs 3.84 crore on its seventh Monday, according to Bollywood Hungama. That takes its domestic total to Rs 271.26 crore. Most films see collections thin out badly by the sixth or seventh week. This one hasn't. It needs Rs 28.74 crore more to hit Rs 300 crore, and if Monday's number is any guide, that milestone could land within the week.
That's the kind of legs studios dream about and rarely get. A film that's been in theatres for close to seven weeks pulling in nearly four crore on a weekday isn't normal. It suggests word of mouth kept building well after the opening weekend buzz should have died down, and that theatres kept show counts up because the audience kept showing up.
Compare that to Vibe.
Kunal Kemmu's comedy, also starring Preity Zinta, Sparsh Shrivastava and newcomer Vanshika Dhir, opened on September 18 and has gone the other way entirely. Per Sacnilk figures reported by The Free Press Journal, the film collected Rs 90 lakh net on Day 4, its first Monday, from 2,609 shows. That's a 70% drop from Sunday's Rs 3 crore. Four days in, the India net stands at Rs 8.35 crore, with a gross of Rs 10 crore. Add in Rs 25 lakh overseas on Monday, pushing the overseas gross to Rs 1.50 crore, and the worldwide gross comes to Rs 11.50 crore.
Against a reported production budget of around Rs 35 crore, that's a rough four days. The story follows two friends who stumble into a terrorist plot they don't understand, and reviews have been mixed at best. The Free Press Journal's own review gave it 2.5 stars, calling the first half enjoyable but flagging a stretched second half and uneven writing, the sort of verdict that rarely helps a film hold its Monday numbers.
What's striking is the gap in trajectory rather than scale. Hanuman Ansh is proving that a film without A-list marquee names can keep pulling crowds deep into its run if the content clicks. Vibe had a recognisable cast and a genre built for word of mouth, comedy plus action, and still couldn't survive its first weekday.
The next few days matter for both. Hanuman Ansh is watching the calendar for its Rs 300 crore crossing, likely by next week if Monday's pace holds. Vibe, meanwhile, has to answer a tougher question: whether it can find any second wind at all, or whether the Rs 35 crore budget is simply too much film for the audience it's found.
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.