Diwali is considered to be one of the most lucrative periods for the Bollywood box office business. In this festive season, even mediocre films like Housefull 4, Golmaal 4, and Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo have done bumper business in the past. But this Diwali has turned out to be dark for the makers and distributors in Bollywood.
This Diwali saw the release of Akshay Kumar’s Ram Setu and Ajay Devgn’s Thank You. Going by the initial reports, Ram Setu has collected around 15 crores net while Thank God has struggled to reach 10 crores.
The average occupancy throughout the day for both films was somewhere around 30-35% which is pathetic on post-Diwali day, which is considered the best day for collections for Hindi films.
There was a time when films like Ra.one, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Happy New year, and Dhoom 3 took a bumper opening of around 80% all over during Diwali. Even disaster films like Thugs of Hindostan opened to more than 60%.
Even last year, Sooryavanshi opened to 26 crores net collection with 50% occupancy in Maharashtra. But Ram Setu and Thank God combined collections will also struggle to touch that 26-crore figure.
Kantara, on the other hand, has seen a good jump on Tuesday of over 60% and collected around 2.80 crores net on its 12th day. It will continue its winning march for a few more weeks.
This Diwali has turned out to be the darkest for Bollywood in the last twenty years. The reports of both films are extremely mixed and it would be a herculean task for both films to get the HIT tag from hereon.
