look news india
The box office competition between the two big films released in theaters on August 14 on the occasion of Independence Day—Emraan Hashmi’s ‘Awarapan 2’ and Sunny Deol’s period drama ‘Batwara 1947’—has now become completely one-sided. After the figures of the 8th day of release i.e. second Friday have come out, it has become clear that Emraan Hashmi has made a strong hold on the box office, while Sunny Deol’s stardom is failing to attract the audience to the theatres.
‘Awarapan 2’: Emraan Hashmi’s dominance continues on the second Friday too
Made with a budget of just Rs 45 crore, ‘Awarapan 2’ achieved the title of blockbuster by earning many times more than its cost in the first week of its release. Despite the 8th day being a working Friday, the film continued to perform well at the domestic box office.
According to early trade data from Sacnilk, ‘Awarapan 2’ has registered a net collection of around ₹5.50 crore in India on its 8th day. With this, the total domestic net collection of the film has crossed ₹ 119 crore and its total gross collection in India has reached ₹ 141.87 crore.
The overseas business of the film has also created new records. After collecting ₹27.30 crore from overseas markets, the worldwide gross collection of the film has crossed ₹169.17 crore. This is proving to be the biggest solo blockbuster of Emraan Hashmi’s career so far.
‘Partition 1947’: ₹150 crore film reaches lakhs on 8th day
On the other hand, Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta starrer ‘Bantwara 1947’, made with a huge budget of around Rs 150 crore under the banner of director Rajkumar Santoshi and Aamir Khan Productions, is struggling to survive at the box office.
The film’s earnings fell by more than 44% to just ₹75 lakh (₹0.75 crore) on the 8th day. After eight days, the total domestic net collection of the film was only ₹34.35 crore and gross collection was only ₹40.77 crore. The slow pace of the film continues in foreign countries too and its total worldwide collection is still stuck at ₹ 49.02 crores, that is, the 150 crore film could not even touch the 50 crore mark in 8 days.
Huge cuts in theater shows, ‘Awarapan 2’ takes over the screens
Due to low viewership and sluggish occupancy, theater owners have drastically reduced the shows of ‘Bantwara 1947’ in the second week. While ‘Awarapan 2’ is running strong with over 9,800 shows across the country, the shows of ‘Partition 1947’ have come down to a limited range of around 1,500 to 3,200.
Trade analysts believe that the second weekend (Saturday and Sunday) will again see a big jump in the earnings of ‘Awarapan 2’, whereas it now seems impossible for ‘Partition 1947’ to recover even half of its total cost.