At the domestic box-office, the business of ‘Kantara’ has cast a shadow over ‘Phone Bhoot’ and other new releases.
Katrina Kaif, Sidhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter's latest horror-comedy 'Phone Bhoot' minted Rs 2.05 crores on its first day of release. On its second day, it raked in Rs 2.75 crore and on its third day too, the film struggled and collected Rs 3.05 crore, taking the overall business of the first weekend to a total of Rs 7.85 crore.
Film trade analyst took to Twitter and wrote, “#PhoneBhoot struggles… Biz did improve on Day 2 and 3, but the 3-day total is below the mark… Contribution from metros mainly, mass pockets remain dull… Weekdays crucial…”
The film revolves around a ghost, who reaches out to two bumbling ghostbusters for a business idea. However, their plans go downhill as the eerie ghost reveals her plan. Directed by Gurmmeet Singh and written by Ravi Shankaran and Jasvinder Singh Bath, 'Phone Bhoot' is produced by Excel Entertainment.
The film clashed with Janhvi Kapoor’s ‘Mili’ and Huma Qureshi-Sonakshi Sinha’s ‘Double XL’. And to everyone’s dismay, the two films collected only a few lakhs, falling short of even Rs 1 crore on their opening day. While ‘Mili’ has made about Rs 1.3 crore in its first days, ‘Double XL’ is still lagging behind.
Meanwhile, the Kannada film ‘Kantara’ is showing no signs of slowing down. The film collected Rs 4.50 crore on Sunday for its Hindi version, taking the overall total to Rs 62.40 crore.
Taran Adarsh tweeted, “#Kantara *#Hindi version* is not slowing down soon… A big, fat total is definitely on the cards… Weekend 4 [₹ 10.75 cr] is HIGHER than Weekend 1 [₹ 7.52 cr] and Weekend 2 [₹ 7.25 cr]”
It has been a difficult year for Bollywood, with few films like ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’, ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ and ‘The Kashmir Files’ only earning well.