Box office collections: Katrina Kaif starrer Phone Bhoot crosses Rs 2 crore on Day 1, gathers momentum in second half

Huma Qureshi, Mahat Raghavendra, Sonakshi Sinha and Zaheer Iqbal in 'Double XL'. The film made just Rs 25 lakh in ticket sales on opening day.

It was a rare Friday for the Hindi film industry, with as many as three movies centred on female leads arriving in theatres. These are Phone Bhoot, Mili and Double XL. While Katrina Kaif is the biggest name in spoofy comedy Phone Bhoot, Janhvi Kapoor has the focus entirely on herself in Mili whereas Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi bring in double female power in Double XL.

There is a slight twist in the tale, though. Despite having Katrina in the lead, at least Phone Bhoot has Ishaan and Siddhanth Chaturvedi in key roles with the most screen time too. This makes it a three lead film with Katrina being the most known amongst all. Mili has Sunny Kaushal stepping in too after an author backed role in Shiddat where he did quite well, and here he is in a supporting role. Similarly, Zaheer Iqbal too has a supporting role in Double XL where Sonakshi and Huma lead the show.

Talking about the box office performance of these films, less than Rs 3 crore came between them and it’s on expected lines. For now, it’s not about the opening that a film takes at the box office but the growth that it manages over the weekend. If not for that, then word of mouth is the key because that allows at least credibility to be built so that the awareness factor helps build further traction on the OTT premiere.

Phone Bhoot saw the best of collections coming in, with Rs 2.05 crore in ticket sales. This is remarkable, given that when the film opened, the morning and afternoon shows didn’t quite indicate such a number by close of day. However, things picked up pace by the evening and night shows which indicates that the word of mouth for the film is encouraging and hence growth may be evidenced today and tomorrow for the Excel Entertainment film.

On the other hand, Mili opened to Rs 0.50 crore* at the box office on a restricted release. The Janhvi Kapoor starrer arrived at a little over 500 screens and had some strategically placed shows at key multiplexes. This was never meant to be a film that would take a major start at the box office and instead would rely entirely on word of mouth. Hence, when limited footfalls came in, it wasn’t surprising. In any case, this is lower budget film, and the recovery has already been taken care of from the OTT, music and satellite rights sales. What it has done though is fetched appreciation for Janhvi Kapoor all over again. She had already shown in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl that she has it in her to be taken seriously as an actress, and that’s what has happened with Mili as well.

As for Double XL, it’s the same story as Mili when it comes to budget, release and expectations. However, the numbers are much lower at a mere Rs 0.25 crores* and the appreciation too is limited. The film isn’t expected to show any major jump in numbers over the weekend and would fold up rather quickly.

Meanwhile, the film which isn’t folding up anytime soon is Kantara (Hindi). The film has already scored a half century in just three weeks and that too after taking an opening day of Rs 1.27 crore. Moreover, it’s still collecting more than that on a daily basis and is in the vicinity of Rs 2 crore ever since. Now that it has entered the fourth week, the collections have crossed the Rs 53 crore mark, which is excellent.

Rishab Shetty, who had directed the movie as well as acted in it, has built quite a name for himself at an all-India level now as this one came out of nowhere and has now turned so big. In times when the biggest of Bollywood films are struggling to score a half century, this one could cross Rs 65 crore by the close of week and aim for a lifetime in the vicinity of Rs 75 crore. Superhit.

*Estimates. Final numbers awaited.

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources