B.O. update: ’Kidnap’ & ’Drona’

There's good news and bad news! First, the good news…

Both KIDNAP and DRONA, the two major releases of the week, benefitted due to October 2 holiday [Gandhi Jayanti and Eid]. The collections of KIDNAP were strong across all multiplexes on Thursday, but not as strong at mini-metros and smaller towns. The first day [Thursday] all-India nett, according to Studio 18, is approx. Rs. 5 crores. However, the business had a 25% decline on Friday due to it being a working day, although the collections should've been strong due to the Eid festivities.

DRONA, on the other hand, was leading in U.P., where it opened to an excellent response. The film was running to packed houses at several key stations here. At other places, the opening ranged from good to average to ordinary. A decline was noticed on Friday.

Now the bad news…

Both KIDNAP and DRONA are enjoying negative reports and the high occupancy could be due to the holiday period. While the opinion on KIDNAP ranges from below average to bad, DRONA is carrying negative reports. It remains to be seen how the two films fare on Saturday and Sunday, but given the fact that the reports are far from positive, a fall [at several places] is expected on Saturday and more from Monday onwards.

In Overseas, DRONA collected 4,00,000 Dirhams in the Middle East on its opening day [source: Eros]… KIDNAP also collected 4,00,000 Dirhams on Wednesday and 3,50,000 Dirhams on Thursday [source: Studio 18]… KIDNAP collected £ 65,000 on Thursday and £ 44,000 on Friday in U.K… KIDNAP also opened in Pakistan on Eid [on Wednesday]. The Pakistan distributor has informed this writer that the collections are bigger than SINGH IS KINNG.

Now the economics…

Both KIDNAP and DRONA carry the burden of a heavy price tag. Industry talk is that Ashtavinayak has sold KIDNAP for Rs. 36 crores to Indian Films. Add to it another Rs. 4 crores for prints and promotions [TV promotions were done separately by Ashtavinayak], which means that the costing is around Rs. 40 crores. Since Studio 18 hasn't sold the film and are distributing it across the country, it would be interesting to see what the outcome is after Week 1.

On the other hand, DRONA is an expensive film [industry pegs it at Rs. 45 cores to Rs. 50 crores] and add to it prints + promotion expenses. Eros too is distributing the film. Let's await the outcome