Akshay Kumar has now won two major Box Office clashes in 2016.
Earlier this year, his Airlift had clashed with Kya Kool Hain Hum 3. While Airlift was of course a much bigger film in terms of cast, scale, grandeur, canvas and treatment, Kya Kool Hain Hum 3 had one major thing going in its favour - the recall value of the franchise. Even though the film was much smaller in all dimensions, the makers had given it a good enough release, as a result of which Airlift did face an impact from the screen size perspective. In fact given the credentials that Kya Kool Hain Hum 3 carries, the clash was much tightly fought on the Day One at the least, which looked as below:
Airlift - Rs. 12.35 crore
Kya Kool Hai Hum 3 - Rs. 8.15 crore
It is a different matter though that Kya Kool Hain Hum 3 crashed soon enough with a just about decent weekend [Rs. 20.15 crore] and bad lifetime [Rs. 30.25 crore]. On the other hand Airlift went from strength to strength with a very good weekend [Rs. 44.30 crore] and superb lifetime [Rs. 128.1 crore].
However, the clash that was expected to be a fight amongst the equals was the one that started yesterday when Rustom took on Mohenjo Daro.
On paper, the Hrithik Roshan and Ashutosh Gowariker film was a much bigger affair. The film was launched with much fanfare. A lot went into the conceptualizing, planning and realization stages. The film was the biggest ever for Ashutosh Gowariker and Hrithik Roshan too decided to give two years of his life into its making. The release date too was announced much in advance.
However, this is when the makers of Rustom sprung a surprise and decided to take Mohenjo Daro heads on. Yes, Akshay Kumar has been on a roll but this was going to be his third release in seven months. Also, nothing was really known about how Mohenjo Daro had actually shaped up and still Rustom decided to battle the unknown. Till the time its promo was out, Rustom was being seen as a smaller niche affair, though the equality factor was from the cast perspective. Still, it seemed like at the Box Office, it would be a tough battle ahead for Rustom.
All changed though when the promos of both films was unveiled. Suddenly, the tide turned towards Rustom and while the film continued to gain momentum with practically every passing day, only to reach its peak (and then sustenance) a week back itself, Mohenjo Daro didn't have anything going in its favour during its entire phase of promotion and marketing. The only consolation was a slightly bigger release but even there, the makers must have expected for a better haul. In the hindsight though, it would have been futile since the average occupancy as well as absolute numbers has been way lesser than Rustom, as below:
Rustom: Rs. 14.11 crore
Mohenjo Daro: Rs. 8.87 crore
Yet again, Akshay Kumar has won the Box Office battle, and this time it is even sweeter since he competition was much-much bigger as well as prestigious. Moreover, Akshay Kumar has now managed to do this with his third release of the year, which is all the more remarkable.
The kind of positioning that the superstar has found himself in, one now waits to see if the next time he brings a biggie on screen, will there be a major star and actor who would turn up as an opponent!
