MNIK Box office reports

Seat-edger start for `My Name is Khan' in Mumbai

Varada Bhat

Mumbai, Feb. 12

The opening day screening of My Name is Khan could be music to the ears of Fox Star Studios, which bought it for Rs 100 crore.

After a shaky start which only saw half of Mumbai's multiplexes screen the film, the latter part of Friday saw tickets virtually flying off the counters. The weekend could, therefore, see packed halls for the movie which has been in the eye of a political storm. Tickets are retailing at a 15 per cent premium.

Over 300 prints were released in Maharashtra, of which Mumbai got 65. The two centres are critical to any new Bollywood release's fortunes as they jointly contribute to over 25 per cent of box office collections.

Sources at Fox Star say it was tough to ascertain the opening day's collections as the film opened simultaneously in Egypt, West Asia, Germany, Poland, Australia, the UK and the US. Nearly 70 per cent of its collections are expected to come from overseas markets.

Indications from analysts are that the movie has grossed nearly Rs 2 crore in Australia, New Zealand and the UK and inching close to the Rs 8-crore mark in the domestic market.

For the record, Bollywood's largest grosser to date, 3 Idiots raked in Rs 20 crore on Day One and it remains to be seen if MNIK will do better.

"Despite the Mumbai release being affected on the first day, MNIK should have a record-breaking Friday in terms of box-office numbers," said Mr Taran Adarsh, a film trade analyst.

The film opened to big crowds in the country with almost every multiplex reporting 100 per cent collections. "The film has opened to a solid start," said Mr Vijay Singh, CEO, Fox Star Studios.

It hit the screens amidst unprecedented security at movie halls.

On an average, 70-100 policemen were deployed across each property to keep in check potential violence from Shiv Sena protestors.

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B.O. update: 'M.N.I.K.' opens to a deafening response!


Humungous -- that's the right word to describe the initial response to MY NAME IS KHAN. The film had a deafening start at practically every centre, with practically every multiplex generating 100% collections, while single screens in mass-dominated centres opened to a 70% - 80% response, which is very, very good.

At a major theatre in Delhi, the audiences heralded the arrival of the film with band-bajaa and by bursting crackers. Outside a theatre in Patna, a moviegoer distributed roses to cinegoers who had come to watch the film.

The reviews from critics who matter are already out [every reviewer has praised the film to the skies] and the audience feedback is overwhelming. In fact, at several places, there has been a mad scramble to book the tickets and the film is expected to set theatre, city and district records at most centres.

In Mumbai, the multiplexes had decided to open shows at one property each. Hence, the multiplexes didn't perform the morning shows, but commenced screening from 12 noon onwards. The screenings began at Fun Republic [Andheri], Inox [Nariman Point], PVR [Goregaon], Fame [Malad], Big [Wadala] and Cinemax [Kandivali]. The multiplexes have now started screening the film at other properties.

Despite the Mumbai release getting affected, the film should have a solid, record-breaking Friday, in terms of box-office numbers. 


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My Name Is Khan has a big opening in the US

Mumbai: A blast from the Arctic has been dumping heavy snow on New York but on Thursday Shah Rukh Khan was given a gift from the weather gods: a calm winter night for a screening of My Name Is Khan. 
The ImaginAsian theatre in New York filled up quickly — even the US media which ignores Bollywood releases has been stirred over how the Shiv Sena has been bullying theatre owners in Mumbai into scotching Khan’s film.

The Shiv Sena’s skullduggery has made headlines in most US broadsheets including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. “I think the Shiv Sena is creating bad karma by being so mean-spirited,” said Linda Langly, who pays up to $12 a ticket to watch premieres of Bollywood movies with her Indian boyfriend.

Western markets, especially those with a fair sprinkling of South Asian diaspora like in the US and the UK, have become a major source of revenue for Indian films in recent years. MNIK producers will be hoping to offset any losses in Mumbai against the commercial success of the new release in North America.

Fox Star Studios is content with its distribution deal for filmmaker Karan Johar’s new release. Its plans of releasing as many as 500 prints of the film in more than 65 countries worldwide are unprecedented for a Bollywood project. In the US and Canada it opens in 121 theatres on Friday which is on the lavish end of what Bollywood films open on.

The Khan-Kajol film is likely to draw South Asians into theatres in droves over the Valentine’s Day long weekend from 13-15 February. Monday is a President’s Day holiday in the US so MNIK is likely to earn strong box-office receipts.

“Shah Rukh has an absolutely inbuilt audience with Non Resident Indians (NRIs). He has a very strong connect with them. I thought he was one of the best things about MNIK so I have no doubt that they will love the film. They will certainly check it out,” said Anupama Chopra, author of King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema.

“Bollywood is no longer the shabby, slightly embarrassing country cousin that NRI parents insist on bringing home. Hindi films are trendy. So is India,” Chopra whose life is half Mumbai, half Michigan soid.

According to Chopra, the meteoric rise of Shah Rukh could be read as a metaphor for a country changing at breakneck pace. “He is a Muslim superstar in a Hindu-majority country and his life reflects the fundamental paradoxes of a post-liberalisation nation attempting to thrive in a globalised world,” says Chopra.

While promoting MNIK in New York, Khan told the WSJ that he wanted his new film to be a cross between hit like Pedro Almodovar’s Life is Beautiful which was a foreign language film watched by the global masses.

“Will MNIK really connect with the US mainstream audience? I am not so sure,” said Chopra. Vibhuti Patel, contributing editor for Newsweek, gave the film high marks for grappling with a topical subject, but panned it as “far too long” for Western audiences. “I think it was a crossover between Forest Gump and Rainman. It didn’t have the song and dance. The film had autobiographical overtures for Shah Rukh,” said Patel.

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