Harry Potter, ZNMD do well despite blasts

Even as Harry Potter is believed to have received the biggest opening any Hollywood film has got in India, trade pundits say Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara too, has fared spectacularly among its own audience. Harry Potter: Full Coverage

It’s pouring hits at the box office this weekend. The last in the magical Warner Bros franchise, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part Two (HP) and Zoya Akhtar’s road trip film, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD), have given the box office one of it’s biggest weekends ever.

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“Harry Potter is said to have broken all records as far as international cinema is concerned in India, it is being said to have received the biggest opening any Hollywood film has got here,” says trade pundit Amod Mehra. And just the fact that ZNMD has released in more theatres than HP doesn’t prove much in this case. Both the films have fared spectacularly in their own universes and among their own audiences.

“ZNMD’s net collection on the first day was about Rs 7.5 crore and approximately Rs 9 to Rs 9.25 crore on the second,” reveals Komal Nahta, film trade analyst. “Unfortunately even Warner Bros doesn’t have the figures for Harry Potter yet. But since it had a good and healthy start, on the first day including its Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and English versions combined, it should have collected around Rs 4.5 crore.”

Even though the two highly anticipated films released only days after the serial blasts in Mumbai on Wednesday, the weekend collections prove that audiences did not hesitate to step out. “People have come in big numbers, in spite of speculation. The teenagers are having a ball, and even if they don’t get tickets for either one of these films, they have Murder 2 as an option. It’s a big bonanza time for multiplexes. This kind of a weekend isn’t one we witness often,” adds Mehra.

Even though Harry Potter initially sped ahead of Zoya Akhtar’s film in the early shows, the Hrithik Roshan-Farhan Akhtar-Abhay Deol starrer quickly caught up. Yet, apprehensions about it slowing down in the coming days do exist. “I don’t know whether it will be able to sustain for too long,” adds Nahta, while trade analyst Taran Adarsh reveals, “It is not selling so much in single screens, but on the strength of the multiplexes, the youth has taken to the film in a big way. It might be one of the biggest openings we’ve seen.”

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