'TMK looks to be a losing proposition'

Post weekend, collections of Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan has dropped drastically, trade experts say it will be difficult to recover costs.

He came, he saw and he conquered. Not quite, say trade experts, adding that after a great start, Farah Khan’s Tees Maar Khan witnessed a gradual dropping in collections at the box-office. The trade rule is that Sunday seeing a better collections than Saturday, which fares better than Friday. But we’re told the Akshay Kumar-Katrina Kaif comic heist registered at least Rs 1 crore less on Sunday as compared to about Rs 13 crore on opening day.



"Monday registered a third of opening day collections and Tuesday saw them fall further. It looks to be a losing proposition," observes Amod Mehra, a veteran trade analyst, adding "The film still needs to earn at least Rs 40 crore worldwide to break even. But when 99 per cent of the audience rejects a movie, its chances of becoming a hit is less."

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On condition of anonymity, a single screen theatre owner in Mumbai attributed the film’s failure to lack of soul. He says, "At the onset, the film’s makers should have avoided comparing their Sheila ki jawani with Munni badnaam hui from Dabangg. Although Sheila and the Christmas weekend did help in drawing an initial, they couldn’t sustain it due to lack of substantial content. Although Akshay Kumar and Farah Khan made their money by selling it to UTV, Tees Maar Khan’s disappointing box-office performance will affect Akshay because his last couple of films haven’t done well commercially."



Apart from the content, the pricing also worked against Tees Maar Khan, asserts Sanjay Mehta, a Delhi-based distributor. "The remuneration of the actors and directors affected the pricing. Besides, they are also producing it. Fixing a price and not being able to recover it, results in a hoarding-like situation. Eventually that went against the good start the film took at the box-office," he explains.

Another reason Tees Maar Khan failed is the delayed advance booking. A CEO of a national multiplex chain revealed that the film’s makers didn’t allow bookings to open in single screens on Monday. He says, “In many theatres bookings started only on the morning of release because the filmmakers were asking for huge advances. No wonder first shows in single screen theatres in places like Rajkot, Uttar Pradesh were cancelled.”

On the hike in ticket prices helping the film collect a fabulous initial, Mehra commented that the fall was equally bad too. “It won’t be a disaster like Kites, Raavan or Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey, but the exact figures can be gauged only after the second weekend,” he said. However, our multiplex CEO is sure the makers won’t recover the high cost. “TMK will register a loss of at least Rs 5 crore. And that’s why Farah needs to be cautious about her next movie and Akshay worried about his next, Patiala House.”