Kartik Aaryan’s film ‘Shehzada’ fails to live up to the expectations and barely mints Rs 20 crore on its first weekend.
Kartik Aaryan’s ‘Shehzada’ isn’t getting too much love from the industry, audience or the critics. The film, which also stars Kriti Sanon, had a poor start at the box office and collected only Rs 6 crore on its first day and around Rs 6.65 crore on its second day. On Day 3, the film witnessed a little growth and collected Rs 7.55 crore, taking the overall first weekend collection to around Rs 20.20 crore at the domestic box office.
As per trade analyst Taran Adarsh, who tweeted the numbers, ‘Shehzada’, the film “doesn’t live up to the expectations… The weekend biz is below the mark… The *big* jump / turnaround on Sat and Sun - to improve its prospects - is clearly missing.” Check out this tweet:
Certainly, it means a big blow for Kartik, who had also co-produced the film. The actor’s previous theatrical release ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ raked in around Rs 55 crore on its first weekend. In terms of Bollywood, the film is also facing competition from Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’, which is still running strong at the box office, in its fourth week and is moving closer to the Rs 1000 crore club at the global box office.
For the unversed, ‘Shehzada’ is the official remake of Allu Arjun and Pooja Hegde’s blockbuster film ‘Ala Vailkunthapurramaloo’.
Furthermore, ‘Shehzada’ is facing competition from Marvel’s ‘Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’. The superhero film, starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly, collected over Rs 17.70 crore on its first two days, and is expected to have earned over Rs 8 crore on its third day, taking the collection to over Rs 25 crore.
Nonetheless, in terms of Marvel’s Hollywood releases in India, ‘Ant-Man’ lags behind ‘Spider-Man No Way Home’, which had earned over Rs 79 crore in the first weekend, days after witnessing an opening of Rs 32.67 crore. ‘Avengers Endgame’ too had earned over Rs 55 crore on its first day itself while ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ collected Rs 160 crore at the box office on its first weekend.