A drought hit Bollywood seems to be recovering with two new releases; Arjun and Shraddha’s Half Girlfriend and Irrfan’s Hindi Medium. Half Girlfriend maintained a decent pace and collected Rs 32.04 crore over the weekend. Critically acclaimed Hindi Medium witnessed great jump over the weekend grossing Rs 12.5 crore.
Bollywood has been sluggish ever since the release of Badrinath ki Dulhaniya in March. None of the movies have collected more than Rs 40 crore since March. This weekend proved good for both the Bollywood films despite the clash and the IPL finals.
Half Girlfriend debuted with Rs 10.27 crore on Fiday. The movie fared very well in single screen theatres and multiplexes saw average occupancy. Arjun’s Half Girlfriend showed minimal growth on Saturday collecting Rs 10.67 crore. The film received poor reviews from the critics and average word of mouth from the audiences. Mohit Suri’s Half Girlfriend saw a mere jump of 10% on Sunday, taking the weekend collections to Rs 32.04 crore.
Irrfan’s Hindi Medium was the second release of the week. The movie opened on a lower note on Friday collecting Rs 2.81 crore. However, excellent reviews from the critics and positive word of mouth translated into a big jump on Saturday. The movie collected Rs 4.25 crore on Saturday with an impressive jump of 51% over Friday. Hindi Medium collected Rs 5.50 crore on Sunday, taking the 3 day total to Rs 12.5 crore.
Talking of the budget, Half Girlfriend with decent footfalls over the weekend has put its producers and exhibitors in safe shoes. The movie is made out of a budget of Rs 50 crore. The satellite rights and music rights have already brought in Rs 36 crore. With Rs 32 crore over the box-office, the movie is already in the safe zone. However, to become a success story the movie should sustain on the weekdays.
On the other hand, Hindi Medium has been made on a strict budget of Rs 22 crore. The movie has brought in Rs 12.5 crore over the weekend and is supposed to maintain good numbers in the coming weekdays.
Hindi Medium brought in good numbers considering the 1200 screen release. This is Irrfan’s biggest solo opener. The movie is expected to perform well on weekdays and pack a healthy lifetime total for the exhibitors to count on.
Half Girlfriend has been thrashed by the critics and might turn out to be a three-day wonder.
2017 has been the year of weekend performers for Bollywood, but the weekdays fail to bring in the audiences. The exhibitors will hope for the trend to change with new releases.
