Just when everyone thought that Jab Harry Met Sejal will turn tides at the box-office, the exact opposite happened. Forget about breaking records, the movie could not even find audience on its fourth day. Yes, a Shah Rukh Khan, highly anticipated movie, failed to bring audience on a partial Holiday (Raksha Bandhan).
Jab Harry Met Sejal is Shah Rukh’s lowest opener in the past 5 years. The movie opened on a decent note on Friday (4th August) collecting Rs 15.25 crore. The film was expected to grow two folds over the weekend, but disappointing reviews and poor word of mouth spoiled the party. JHMS collected Rs 15 crore on Saturday (5th August) and Rs 15.50 crore on Sunday (6th August), taking the weekend total to Rs 45.75 crore.
The film could not benefit from the partial holiday and saw a dip of over 50 per cent on Monday. JHMS raked in Rs 7.15 crore on Monday (7th August). Standing at a four day total of Rs 52.90 crore, the film is supposed to get a major screen cut from Tuesday (8th August) onwards. JHMS saw a lower occupancy than Mubarakan on Monday and as a result, the former is expected to lose a lot of screens to the latter in the coming weekdays.
In the last few months, we have seen Bollywood films defy expectations at the box-office. On one hand, low budget affairs like Lipstick Under My Burkha and Mom still doing very well at the box-office, on the other hand, star stuffed, high budget movies like Salman’s Tubelight and Shah Rukh’s Jab Harry Met Sejal, failed to garner enough audience.
The fate of Imtiaz Ali film is almost sealed now. We might see a bigger dip in collections in the coming days. Also, the extended Independence Day holiday was supposed to accelerate the biz of JHMS, which we don't see happening now. Made at a budget of over Rs 80 crore (the Diplo song will hurt now, SRK), JHMS will fail to rake in any sort of profits. This is not an ideal situation for Bollywood as two big budget films (Jagga Jasoos and JHMS) will fail at the box-office in less than a month of time.
Things are only supposed to get worse for JHMS as Akshay Kumar starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha will hit screens in the coming weekend. Now that JHMS has been totally rejected by the audience, the movie might completely pack-up in the second week, leaving an open spot for Toilet: Ek Prem Katha to capitalize the Independence Day weekend.