New release Jersey couldn’t do much at the box office on the opening day as just around Rs 4 crore came in. Expectations were that the film would take a start of at least Rs 6 crore, considering that Shahid Kapoor was featuring in there, and also it was catering to family audiences. Yes, the film was postponed a couple of times and that did have a role to play in sustaining the buzz and the momentum. This is the reason why if the film would taken at least a double digit start had it opened on 31 December last year, even with drop in traction over the weeks a better start was expected.
However that was not the case and the footfalls were restricted right through the day. Somehow, the excitement wasn’t quite there amongst the audience and the buzz on the ground was minimal too. Lack of hit music played a role to play. Compare this to Kabir Singh which started at Rs 20.21 crore on its opening day and that goes on to show yet again that how big a role can music play in the opening of a film.
However, 'Jersey' will have likely recovered the cost of making through digital, satellite and music sales - OTT avenues have helped movies to get recovery in this way - so it’s all about how much bigger the profits can get after arriving theatrically. Moreover, an actor’s stardom can be best gauged when people pay at the box office for his films, and this is what Shahid Kapoor would be aiming for as well today and tomorrow when Jersey is expected to grow at theatres.
Meanwhile there is no such trouble that KGF - Chapter 2 (Hindi) is facing which is just continuing to do stupendous business. It is now set to enter the 300 Crore Club tomorrow itself as after being in theatres for 9 days (after its Thursday release), the film has already collected Rs 280.19 crore. The superb trending can well be seen from the fact that Thursday collections stood at Rs 13.58 crore, whereas Friday was Rs 11.56 crore, and that too alongside a new release Jersey.
As for RRR (Hindi), it has collected over Rs 259 crore by its fifth Friday and is aiming for a lifetime sum of Rs 270 crore. The film is now playing on restricted count of screens, courtesy KGF - Chapter 2 (Hindi) occupying the maximum count followed by Jersey. However, the fact also remains that the film has in any case exhausted a large chunk of its target audience, which means whatever is coming in now is an added bonus. The film is a huge superhit already and should break the OTT and satellite records when it arrives there in a few weeks from now.
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
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