Bollywood's first theatrical release following the reopening of cinema halls in select cities in the country after the second lockdown, ‘BellBottom’, opened to 15-20 % occupancy and earned 2.75 crore rupees on the first day of its release.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, Delhi has emerged as the film's biggest market as it made 20% of the nationwide earnings in the Capital. The film, starring Akshay Kumar, is currently playing in fewer than 1000 theatres across the country.
This is less than the collections of ‘Roohi’ and ‘Mumbai Saga’- which made over 3 crore rupees and 2.82 crore rupees respectively, on their first day of the release- after theatres were reopened last year following the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
While many are quick to jump to the conclusion and call the film’s performance subpar, trade analysts feel that the first day’s collections of the film, are not as bad as many are perceiving them to be.
Trade analyst Atul Mohan, explains why the film’s collections have been not been up to the expectations. “It is not a great number, but there are plenty of reasons behind why it is not a six or a seven-crore opening-day. For example, there are many cities where there are now shows after 8pm. So not many were able to go. There are other plenty of reasons, like this and this entire situation because of the pandemic, which is why the film’s collections were so low,” he explains.
“The thing is that many people don’t even know that it is going to release in theatres. I know so many people who were surprised when they found out it released in cinemas yesterday,” says trade analyst Komal Nahta, who also feels that audiences are still "wary of being in public spaces" due to the ongoing pandemic. However, he also forsees that the film might not do very well on the box-office because of its "average" content.
“I think the trailer was better than the film. Yes, I know collections might be better during the weekend, but I don’t think it is going to be as lovely or nice, as people expected it to do, after watching the trailer. I am not saying that it has been negative, but people's response after watching the film, hasn’t been positive either. They have found it a very average film,” he adds.
