Bad Fridays Continue For Bollywood

New Delhi: It's been a rough ride for the big guns at the box office. Tubelight didn't exactly give box office the 440 volts charge that it required, collecting roughly around Rs 120 crore, so much so Muscle Man Khan has promised to reimburse the distributors with 32 crores, though half of the amount lost. Jab Harry Met Sejal's collections stand at 60 crores at the end of its first week and Akshay Kumar's Toilet: Ek Prem Katha was seen as the film which could salvage Bollywood's box fortunes from going down the drain. But positive reviews apart, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha's opening has been considerably lower than that of Jab Harry Met Sejal, which opened at Rs 15.5 crore, highest in a love story genre, obviously driven by King Khan's star power. Akshay Kumar' socio-drama on its opening day took in 13 crores.

Trade Pundits were hopeful that Toilet: Ek Prem Katha would finally be the first Akshay Kumar film that will take him across the Rs 20 crore first-day barrier But the film fell short by 7 crores which keeps Akshay's Fridays range bound, as the actor has been stuck in the 10 to 14 crore opening range.

Though the Khans may be facing rough weather, Raees had opened at nearly 21 crores despite clashing with a major film in Kaabil. Tubelight too opened at 20.5 crores clearly showing the box office clout that Khans manage, apart from Baahubali that was dubbed in Hindi. Raees remains the highest grossing Hindi film of 2017 so far.

What now remains to be seen is how does Toilet: Ek Prem Katha perform over the weekend, as it has been dubbed as a social service film. Made on a budget of 18 crores the film is expected to break even over the I-day weekend.

Hope 2017 doesn't go down as a lackluster year.