Box Office Report: Salaam Venky, Maarich, Vadh fail, Drishyam 2 enters 200 Crore Club

Three new Bollywood films released over the weekend - Salaam Venky, Maarich and Vadh. Unfortunately, none of these could work at the box office. Salaam Venky had Kajol in the lead, Maarich saw the big screen return of Tusshar Kapoor and Vadh had Sanjay Mishra in the lead. There wasn't much of a marketing or promotional campaign around any of these three releases, though Salaam Venky still had (comparatively) better visibility. However, none of that promised much of traction at theatres and this is what happened as there were minimal footfalls.

As a result, the collections for each of these films were in mere lakhs right through the three days, though none came close to bringing on any sort of numbers that could result in an overall respectable numbers at least. As a result, the combined collections of these releases was just around 2 crores mark, which pretty much tells the tale. It is apparent that these were the films that were made for the OTT audience and had to go through the theatrical route due to current mandates. One can expect further reduction in shows from Monday onwards.

This also means that Drishyam 2 would continue to have its monopoly amongst the audiences for the remainder of the week as well. In fact it won't be surprising if more number of shows are assigned to the film as there are footfalls still coming in, and a good one at that. This was evidenced over the weekend gone by as well when around 12.50 crores more came in. This is good as the film continues to gain acceptance despite being in its fourth weekend. Also, the Saturday jump was super impressive which shows how family audiences are rooting for it.

Currently, the Ajay Devgn starrer stands at 209.09 crores* and while the actor has already enjoyed a double bill with a double century been scored and Golmaal Again lifetime of 205.70 crores been crossed, one now waits to see whether it would eventually edge about only Chennai Express [227 crores] or take a shot at even Kick [232 crores]. What happens from here though, the fact remains that this Abhishek Pathak directed suspense drama is a blockbuster and there would be huge records set for all involved once Driahyam 3 arrives in theatres.

Meanwhile, Bhediya is trying to do its best in the limited zone where it is operating and that's what resulted in around 5 crores* coming in over the weekend. The film has been staying low ever since its release and now it's all about gathering as much as it can before Avatar: The Way of Water and Cirkus arrive in back to back weeks. The film has lost at least 20 crores to Drishyam 2 and it would have most certainly crossed the lifetime score of JuJugg Jeeyo [85.25 crores] at least had it not clashed with Drishyam 2 in its second week.

The Varun Dhawan, Kriti Sanon and Abhishek Banerjee film currently stands at 61.62 crores and would eventually have a lifetime number of 68-70 crores. Of course, it deserved to do a lot better but post that initial battle that it had lost in the opening weekend clash with Drishyam 2, there was a lot disappointment felt. It's to the credit of all involved with the film that even in its third week, the film is at least managing to pull off some sort of numbers.

*Estimates. Final numbers awaited