Box Office: Jodha Akbar opens well below expectations in India

If controversies are expected to boost a film's initial, that hasn't happened in regards to the advance booking of Jodha Akbar.

Though the film is expected to open better overseas, the Friday advance opening of 'biggest film of the year' in India is well below expectations. Chennai is at 85% which is good but not recordbreaking. Delhi is hovering around 65%. Bombay is trailing at 60% and Calcutta follows even tad below. Indore is around the 60% mark. Centers across Rajasthan are of course 0% because they aren't even letting the movie open there. The figures are mostly off single screen theaters as most multiplex chains nationally have bypassed the film till now.


The single screens were expected to be entirely sold out and yet they are only opening at just about above average/average. So for a film being mounted on a historic scale and budget, starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, and billed on par with Mughaleazam by critics in reviews, the box office initial has come as a shocker.

Nationally, the film is not releasing in hundreds of theaters due to various issues with the theater chains, and that has not augured well for it either with almost 50% of its prints unable to earn. It will definitely impact opening week collections now, as will the fact of state of Rajasthan blocking the film out entirely. Right now the previously defiant filmmakers are desperately hoping the ban on Jodhaa Akbar doesn't cross over into other states of India.

Courtesy: Ibosnetwork.com