Exclusive Weekly Box Office: Will Brahmastra Break The Jinx, As Cobra, Natchathiram Nagargiradhu Go Slow?

Film trade expert Girish Wankhede analyses the box office of last week's releases, in an exclusive column for Filmibeat. Read on.

Last week there were two important south releases, and in Bollywood there was nothing much to offer, as the entire exhibition space is gung-ho about Brahmastra, which releases on 9 September. No Hindi film dared to get released for a single-week window before Brahmastra. In addition to the re-release of Hollywood film Spider-Man: No way Home and the Idris Elba starrer Beast, last week the other two prominent releases were from south India. One was the Vikram starrer Cobra and the other, Pa Ranjith's Dushara Vijayan starrer Natchathiram Nagargiradhu. Both these Tamil films were released on Wednesday, 31 August.

The noteworthy hold-ons from the previous weeks have been Karthikeya 2 and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, which are still going strong.

Cobra Box Office

Cobra is an action thriller directed by R Ajay Gnanamuthu and features Vikram in a double role along with Srinidhi Shetty, Irfan Pathan and Roshan Mathew. It opened on Wednesday owing to Ganesh Chaturthi and the opening day was huge with Rs 19.50 crore at the box office.

But the reviews were mixed, and a majority of the moviegoers found the film over-the-top and loud. The collections crashed to Rs 6.5 crore on Thursday and further dropped to Rs 5 crore on Friday. Saturday was Rs 6.5 crore and even Sunday was Rs 6.5 crore. The 5-day long festive weekend fetched Rs 44 crore, which is disappointing considering the budget of approximately Rs 100 crore. Still, it has steam because of a humongous fan-following of Vikram and it may go steady in the coming days.

Natchathiram Nagargiradhu Box Office

Another Tamil release last week, Natchathiram Nagargiradhu is a romantic musical with Pa Ranjith stamp all over it. With an Ambedkarite female protagonist and blending the topics of love, caste and honour killing with music and indulgence, this modestly-placed and budgeted film is critically acclaimed and is growing on the box office as well. It was screened for filmmaker Anurag Kashyap in Mumbai, and he was all praise for the director. The film has generally got rave reviews.

Natchathiram Nagargiradhu generated Rs 60 lakh on its opening day on August 31, Rs 25 lakh on Thursday, Rs 35 lakh on Friday, Rs 55 lakh on Saturday and Rs 57 lakh on Sunday. On Monday, it settled to Rs 20 lakh, which is considerable for a limited release. The total is Rs 2.45 crore collected at the box office in 6 days, which is modest for a film whose landing cost is just Rs 10 crore.

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Box Office

Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero entered in its second week in select cinemas across the country. This Japanese computer animated martial arts adventure film was released here on 26 August in Japanese, English and Hindi and the response is mixed. Releasing in three languages was an experiment which resulted in several insights. English contributed to 65% of the total earnings while Hindi and Japanese contributed to 18% and 17%, respectively. This led to the conclusion that Hindi and Japanese fared far below the expectations.

Also, the buzz and the needed aggressive publicity was missing. On the day of release, Dragon Ball collected around Rs 45 lakh, rose to Rs 65 lakh on day 2, and to around Rs 80 lakh on day 3. Day 4 and 5 totalled to Rs 65 lakh and Day 6 and 7 made another Rs 50 lakh. Week 1 collected Rs 3 crore pan India for the Japanese film. The second weekend made another Rs 50 lakh and by Monday, the total box office figure for Dragon Ball was between Rs 3.5 crore to Rs 4 crore, which is quite reasonable.

Karthikeya 2 Box Office

Karthikeya 2 entered in its fourth week in theatres with elan! Its second week was bigger than the first week owing to strong word of mouth and the admiration of the content by audiences. The film was released on Saturday, so its first week comprised 6 days and generated Rs 5.75 crore. In the second week, it made Rs 13.54 crore and in the third week, it made Rs 6.94 crore. The Friday of the fourth week garnered Rs 51 lakh, while the Saturday and Sunday collected Rs 86 lakh and Rs 90 lakh, respectively.

Another lacklustre release of this week has been a Hindi film Token, which could not garner any footfall nor excitement.

All Hopes On Brahmastra Box Office

Last week's releases Liger and Three Thousand Years of Longing also failed at the box office. The films Nope, Taka Tak 2 and Dagadi Chawl 2 are also steaming out. The only hope is now Brahmastra this week! Releasing on September 9, Brahmastra stars Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy and Nagarjuna, among others. The initial reports of Brahmastra are that it looks fabulous. Going by the recent news of powerful advance bookings and special preview bookings in all the major multiplex chains for the film - Brahmastra may break the jinx of the dry spell at the Indian box office!