Friday Matinee - 1971 - The war in Box office begins

Mohanlal who is on a winning streak and can he continues the consecutive blockbuster series through the latest movie with director Major Ravi  1971 Beyond Borders ? Initial reports are indicating mixed reviews with extreme poles, from Above average to average WOM. War scenes are rated as the best by a spectacular photography from Sujith Vasudev. The movie has record number of screens all over India including Kerala which is claimed by the makers as 405. On rough analysis it has crossed around 375 screens which itself is a record. This film is considered as the least hyped Mohanlal film of recent time, still it has record screens.  Every one aims at wrapping up collections whatever they can in a week.

The Great Father is a big hit in Mammootty’s nearly four decade career. Most likely the winner of the Vishu –Easter season. It is certainly had frenzied hype on release. The producers sensed the opportunity to utilize it to maximum to their advantage. His fans were also wanted to create history. Good opening and excellent collection with large number of screens on its credit. But all of them together tried to over play the collection by highly inflated in the beginning itself which was unwarranted one. Movies like Pulimurugancomes rarely and we can’t treat each and every film in its league because of various factors involved in it. Even without gimmicks TGF would have had its great mark on the collection in its first week. But now it has been made joke of it. Even an official statement with all the facts will make no difference. It has created that much deficit of trust in industry and people at large. No one believe a film with poultry 600 shows collects around 7.90 Cr in a day which is next to imagination in Kerala. This blogger has been tracking the box office update last several year and frankly never seen such a highly inflated collection figure in the Malayalam film industry as this one. They might have thought of publicity stunt but it also need to be within our limit of commonsense. When a valid question we may end up in hiding without answers.

The collection wise The Great Father got an earth shattering start and reaped the rich harvest in the weekend as well. The week days also recorded an average 60 to 70 % collection in around 140 screens across Kerala. City wise, Kozhikode had splendid collection followed by Ernakulam. Region wise,  Malabar  is miles ahead of others. Grossed around 15.45 Cr in the first seven days which is a record figure for a Mega star movie in Kerala .

Geogetten’s Pooram  is another wasted effort from Janapriya Nayakan Dileep. He was in desperate need of a genuine hit at the most critical juncture of his career. People expected comedy film but they got a half baked one. But it has been treated as better movie of Dileep compared to his recent comedy outing. WOM of average to above average can spring surprise depending on fate of other new Malayalam releases. People always prefer comedy films in vacation season. Box office responded positively in initial two days but the weekdays have been average to below average which restricted it first week number to ‘’ not so impressive ‘’ but above average opening. Collects around 4.80 Cr in five days an above average opening considering large number of screens.

Take off has travelled the second week brilliantly amidst all bustling sounds and dust created by the heavily hyped movie TGF. Theater owners cooperated largely in the success by continuing with movie in the second week in many centers were collection not up to the mark. It had impressive second week with collection around 10.85 Cr . Hit status and edging towards Super Hit 

Kerala Top 5 movies (07/04/2017)

1. The Great Father – Excellent opening
2. Geogetten’s Pooram- Above average opening
3. Take Off – Successful landing
4. Honey Bee 2 – Flop
5. Angamaly Diaries  – Super Hit