Bunty Aur Babli 2 underperforms, Bollywood's box office run slows down

After a strong run at the box office, Bollywood's performance has slowed down due to its recent offering which underperformed in its opening days.

The multi-starrer venture Bunty Aur Babli 2 which was expected to see first day collections of Rs 6-8 crore saw dismal business on day one.

Despite big names including Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee starring in the film, the Bollywood offering could not attract an audience in large numbers to theatres and earned around Rs 2.5 crore on its first day.

The film, which had opened in around 1,800 screens in India, did not see growth in business on the second day of its release, with its two-day total adding up to Rs 5 crore at the Indian box office.

Muted performance of Bunty Aur Babli 2 is a cause of concern for Bollywood, an industry that accounted for 43 percent of overall box office revenue in 2019, according to a 2020 EY report.

Film producer and trade business analyst Girish Johar, in an earlier interview to Moneycontrol, said that the recovery of Bollywood's box office business depended on how the upcoming content performs.

He had said, if Bunty Aur Babli 2, John Abraham-starrer Satyameva Jayate 2 and Antim starring Salman Khan deliver strong performance on opening day, Bollywood could see faster recovery in business.

However, analyst Karan Taurani, Senior Vice-President, Elara Capital noted that footfalls for medium and small films were not expected in large numbers as pre-COVID recovery for such films might be delayed as compared to large scale ventures.

According to him, more large scale and good quality content coupled with occupancy relaxation in states like Maharashtra to 100 percent capacity will lead to footfall recovery to pre-COVID-19 levels.

While performance of big Bollywood ventures will drive box office business, large scale offerings are yet to reach pre-COVID-19 levels in terms of footfalls and business. Hence, the business of small and medium films remains key.

Taurani said that, for Sooryavanshi, business from Maharashtra that accounted for 21 percent of the movie's overall box office collection, was lower than pre-COVID average of 25 percent.

In terms of footfalls for Sooryavanshi, it has been 15-20 percent below pre-COVID-19 levels. "There is a small portion of the audience which is yet to come back to cinemas," said Taurani.

Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media, a media consulting firm, noted that nine percent of the Indian audience was not willing to go back to cinemas.

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While audience sentiment towards going back to theatres has significantly improved, 33 percent are of the opinion that they would visit cinemas once a film of their choice releases, according to Ormax Cinematix (OCX) sentiment tracker.

Data by OCX which uses consumer research across India to measure the performance of films also pointed out that as of November 18, 10 percent of the audience is undecided to go back to theatres and seven percent will visit cinemas only after pandemic ends.

All eyes are now on upcoming ventures Satyameva Jayate 2 and Antim as experts believe that if these films see a good opening at the box office then Bollywood has crossed the roadblock.