Eros prays for a full house this weekend

Jai Ho's collections on opening day fall below expectations

Salman Khan-starrer Jai Ho, the first high-profile release of the year, might well turn out to be the year’s first disappointment, too. The film managed to rake in only Rs 17.5 crore on its opening day, against analysts’ expectations of Rs 22-25 crore.

The poor opening will affect co-producer Eros International more, as Sohail Khan, the other producer, has already recovered the production cost by selling the film’s rights to Eros for a staggering amount. 

Eros has the distribution rights to the film.

All hopes are now pinned on the collections on Saturday and Sunday. Analysts believe the film will collect Rs 100 crore in the first week only if it records collections of Rs 12-13 crore a day from Monday and if the first weekend collections exceed Rs 50 crore.

“Content-wise, Jai Ho is not a bad film. It has a message and it has Salman in good form. The film’s undoing lies in the lack of chemistry between the lead pair, which is one of the things people look forward to in Salman’s films. Additionally, the film's music has not really clicked. The overall impact of the movie is not so strong,” says Shaaminder Mailk, independent exhibitor and trade analyst (north India).

Jai Ho, which marks the return of Sohail Khan as director (after Hello Brother in 1999), was released in 4,400 screens across the country. It registered occupancy of 40-50 per cent in multiplexes, which experts say is way below average for Salman’s films. Single screens fared better, recording average occupancy of 60-80 per cent and many seeing packed houses.

Jai Ho’s run at the box office also depends on the competition it faces from Abhay Deol’s One by Two, scheduled to be released on January 31.
DREADING A SALMAN DUD

• Jai Ho managed to rake in Rs 17.5 crore on its opening day, lower than analysts’ expectations of Rs 22-25 crore
• Eros bought all the rights of the movie, including distribution, satellite, music and digital, from co-producer Sohail Khan for Rs 120 crore
• Eros has recovered part of the cost by selling satellite rights (Rs 50 crore) and music rights (to T-series for Rs 10 crore)