It was predicted in this column last week that Action Jackson would take a good start at the box office. After all, the stage was set for the film. It had a hero (Ajay Devgn) coming after a biggie (Singham Returns), the director (Prabhudheva) has enjoyed a good run at the box office, the heroine (Sonakshi Sinha) had a good fan following, the marketing and promotion (Eros) was perfect and the release period (solo, with one more open week ahead) couldn’t have been better. All that was needed was the content to be good enough to fetch an audience post word-of-mouth even after a decent opening.
As it turned out though, the opening was below the mark (30%-40%) with not very positive reviews from many quarters. As a result, the film garnered around 33.25 crore over the weekend, though one expected more. Thankfully, it is better than all other films that have released post Happy New Year.
Meanwhile international film Bhopal: A Prayer For Rain was never expected to do well at the box office and that reflected in the limited release and audience count that was barely in single digits. Also, Viacom released yet another stuck film Mumbai Delhi Mumbai after Golu Aur Pappu that had arrived a couple of weeks back. The outcome at the box office was no different with yet another disaster added to Bollywood’s kitty.
* Final numbers awaited