The debut movie of maverick director Farhan Akhtar (in which he has a starring role) ,Rock On!!, has connected well with the youths and the multiplex audience of the nation. The other movies released along side it have, however, failed to convince people to buy the ticket.

C Kkompany has had a better faring that Chamku which incidently didn’t even manage to stay in theaters for more than 3 days. Both the movies have bombed badly!

ROCK ON!! did exceptional over the weekend at all major centres and Monday onwards, centres like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore reported 70% + occupancy, while mini-metros has been 30%-40%, which is favourable as well. Yes, single screens aren’t encouraging, but the business at plexes more than compensates it.

All this points to the fact that Farhan Akhtar has arrived. As an actor!

Well, RGV’s latest horror venture, Phoonk has opened to a great response with 85-90% collections all over India. This has more than exceeded everybody’s expectations and was a great surprise to many considering Ram Gopal Varma’s last outing, Contract, had failed at the box office big time and people were not expecting too much out of this one too.

Thing is to see if this film retains it’s momentum or not? As for the other releases, Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam or Mumbai Meri Jaan, they have opened with 15-20 % collections.

Meanwhile, Singh Is Kinng, God Tussi Great Ho and Bachna Ae Haseeno are doing good business and expected to occupy theaters longer.

Well, here’s some more good news for Akshay. Apart from Singh Is Kinng raking in the moolah by the truck loads in US, UK, Gulf and Australia, it is also making dollars (or Pak Rupees) in Pakistan as well:

SINGH IS KINNG is ruling the hearts. In India. In U.K. In America. In Gulf. In Australia. And also Pakistan. Here’s the proof. First, let’s have a look at the day-wise collections in Pakistan:-
Friday: 9,39,748; Saturday: 18,20,881; Sunday: 21,70,047; Monday: 13,10,783; Total: 62,41,459.

For a detailed insight into the collections of Singh Is Kinng in Pakistan, you can always go here. This does bolster the argument that Akshay is as big a draw at the Box Office as Shahrukh Khan or Salman Khan are.

I have been a fan of Akshay ever since I saw his movie, Khiladi. Since then, there’s been no turning back for me. I admit there had been movies within a phase from 1995 to 2000 which have been outright turkeys (and I did happen to see those to my utter disappointment). But then what’s fan who deserts his idol in his odd days? Not me. I am In with the Kinng! All Hail to the Kinng, Akshay!

Well, on the occasion of Singh Is Kinng releasing on 08.08.08, Let us take a look at the top 10 grossers of Bollywood based on domestic gross business.

The Shahid Kapoor and Vidya Balan starrer, Kismat Konnection, opened well this weekend mostly at multiplexes. The film’s 1st week collections stood at Rs.20.60 crores+

Interestingly, the second half of the movie (with the actress, Vidya Balan) makes the film look like a clone of the brilliant Lage Raho Munnabhai.

The Abbas-Mustan directed thriller, Race, hit the box office with a top speed of 90% + collections. At this rate expect it to be a great money maker at the ticket window.

The movie, which stars Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna as brothers, is a thriller about one-upmanship between the two brothers and packs in edge-of-the-seat thrills to keep you excited.

An excerpt from the Bollywood Hungama Newsletter 1.1:

The much-awaited RACE has opened to a fantastic response [90% +] across the nation. The film has had an extensive release in India [1300 screens, of which 450 are digitals], with some multiplexes playing as many as 24 shows a day [Cinemax Versova in Mumbai].

Read the Review of RACE | RACE 2 is Possible: Abbas-Mustan | RACE Storms International Markets

Well, if you people thought that there were no other websites to go to other than Indiafm or Rediff with regards to news about box office performance of movies, think again. Here’s a great website called the IBOS Network which tracks the box office collections of Bollywood movies and, in fact, has a huge archive of box office info on a lot of titles starting right from the 1940s and earlier.

As for the topic of this post is concerned, here’s a look at the Box office report for the year 2007 for Bollywood. According to the report, the top 5 earners of 2007 are:

1. Om Shanti Om (Shahrukh Khan delivers a solid hit)
   
2. Welcome (which got here because it was one week shy of the new year when it released and scored big in that one  week, grossing almost 75% of what Om Shanti Om did in it’s entire run. This is Akshay Kumar’s fourth hit film in a single calender year giving him considerable clout at the Box Office)
3. Partner (Salman and Govinda score points)
4. Guru (Abhishek’s career defining performance scored for him and his director Mani Ratnam a power packed blockbuster)
5. Chak De India (Shahrukh Khan did for hockey and what no one else could do, bring them to the headlines)

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal didn’t open as was expected but received a good response from the audience. Here’s the week’s box office report from Rediff.com

So, the lethal and previously successful combination of Shahrukh Khan and Farah Khan has delivered another great blockbuster for the King Khan.

Shahrukh Khan has had three (two in starring roles and one in a guest appearance movie) straight big hits this year and is on fire. Let’s hope he keeps the hits coming in.

The opening of Dhamaal and Darling were below the expected 70-80% gross that was expected from them. Dhamaal is a comic caper and Darling is a new kind of genre for Bollywood. The cricket match between India and England may have contributed to the less than expected turnout.