Sivaji dances on Jhoom...

ENTERTAINMENT: At the box office clash, the Chennai thriller clearly outranked the Mumbai multistarrer.

It was one of the most-awaited films of 2007, but with Jhoom Barabar Jhoom going kaput at the box office, its first weekend report has been less than encouraging.

While critics slammed this Rs 30 crore "musical love story", most of them gave the thumbs up to Sivaji: The Boss, actor Rajinikanth's vehicle made on a reported budget of Rs 70-80 crore.

And while both Yash Raj Films and AVM Productions pulled out all stops to garner audiences to the cinema halls (Yash Raj showcased a special music video ofShah Rukh Khan starrer Chak De India before the start of Jhoom, while AVM Productions presented a curtain raiser of a 3D animation film starring Rajinikanth), it's really Sivaji that's leading the box office race.

Though the opening of Jhoom (with 265 prints) was quite good "" it got a 90 per cent opening in some parts of Punjab and Haryana "" the collections have fast slipped because of negative reports.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says, "The opening of Jhoom has come as a complete shocker. Ideally, the opening should have been 90 per cent, but the opening numbers were 45-50 per cent at several places."

Sivaji, on the other hand, collected Rs 1.7 crore on the first day of its release, and continues to swell moolah in its kitty. In fact, Jhoom's opening suffered in the south due to the phenomenal response received by this Rajinikanth starrer.

Going by the previous overseas openings of Yash Raj Films, Jhoom, according to reports, hasn't lived up to expectations, just like the production house's previous venture Ta Ra Rum Pum.

According to Adarsh, "Though the opening weekend numbers haven't been disastrous, the figures cannot be compared to previous Yash Raj hits."

In UK, the film debuted at number six position and collected Rs 2.13 crore on 47 screens, while in the USA it was at 16th position and collected Rs 1.85 crore.

Interestingly, Sivaji fetched one of the biggest openings ever in UK, and though it debuted at ninth position, it has raced past Jhoom even there. So, while Jhoom struggles to recover its money, Sivaji could be laughing all the way to 2007's biggest grosser.