Box Office business goes for a toss

When a calamity occurs in any part of the country, you can feel the tremors across the nation. And the terror attacks in Mumbai has shaken and saddened the world. Not surprisingly, the film business has been badly hit as well. The two releases, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Sorry Bhai!, had a dismal start all over. Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! was slightly better, with a 10% - 15% start, while Sorry Bhai! was performing at 5% - 7% at places. But these numbers are also poor!

In Mumbai, the multiplexes commenced screening movies on Friday and expectedly, the business was disastrous. The fear-factor coupled with the fact that the terrorist attacks hadn't stopped till Friday night kept audiences away from any kind of an outing, including movies.

With the two new releases floundering on Friday, the distributors of next week's releases are getting the jitters. This writer spoke to the producers/distributors of a few films that are scheduled to open next Friday [December 5] and they were unanimous that they would take a decision -- whether to release the film next Friday or postpone it to a further date -- by Monday/Tuesday.