KESARI CHAPTER 2 TRENDS WELL; JAAT SUSTAINS; WILL GROUND ZERO MAKE A MARK?

The last two major releases of Bollywood are not huge Rs. 100 crore grossers. But at the same time, they have been steady at the box office.

Kesari Chapter 2, as expected, opened at Rs. 7.50 crores. The opening was a bit below par, as it was a Good Friday holiday. Usually, the day after Saturday doesn’t see a huge jump. But Kesari Chapter 2 took a while to make noise. Hence, it jumped to Rs. 10 crores on Saturday and Rs. 11.50 crores on Sunday. On Monday, it collected Rs. 4.35 crores. With the cheap ticket offer on Tuesday, the earnings jumped to Rs. 4.85 crores.

Kesari Chapter 2 will collect around Rs. 45 crores in its first week. The target of the film will be to collect Rs. 80-90 crores in its lifetime. The cost, however, is too high. On the plus side, it is the best-performing film of Akshay Kumar in a very long time. The actor suffered a lull but he’s now all set to bounce back with a bang as his upcoming films also seem exciting.

Jaat collected Rs. 59.60 crores in Week 1 and its second-week performance is a bit below expectations. Until Tuesday, it collected Rs. 15.50 crores in the second week. It should have ideally collected Rs. 20 crores. But though Kesari Chapter 2 targets a different set of audiences, the Sunny Deol starrer was affected by the presence of a new release.

Jaat has collected Rs. 75.10 crores until Tuesday and it’ll collect Rs. 78 crores by the end of the second week. It’ll be interesting to see which film manages to earn more out of the two – Kesari Chapter 2 or Jaat.

This week’s big release is Ground Zero, starring Emraan Hashmi. It is inspired by real-life accounts of a man who eliminated the terrorist who was responsible for the 2001 Parliament Attack. The film is majorly set in Kashmir. In fact, the timing is significant as it releases three days after the shocking attack on tourists in Pahalgam.

The buzz for Ground Zero is very limited and hence, an opening of Rs. 1-2 crores is expected. If word of mouth is positive, it can see a huge jump, which will ultimately benefit the film in the long run.

The other major release of the week is Phule. It stars Pratik Gandhi as Mahatma Jyotiba Phule and Patralekhaa as Savitribai Phule. The film has been in the news after the Censor Board deleted certain words. A large section of netizens found it unjustified and it led to a lot of brouhaha.

Sadly, though this controversy has enhanced the awareness of the film, it hasn’t excited the audience to book tickets. Hence, the first-day numbers will be dismal.

Lastly, Jewel Thief will premiere on Netflix. It is sure to grab eyeballs due to its mass appeal and casting – Saif Ali Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat, Nikita Dutta and Kunal Kapoor.