D(h)oom day at the US box office!

Abhishek Bachchan was unlucky twice over the weekend, at least in North America, when both his releases Dhoom and Phir Milenge performed far below expectations.

Despite a bit of sizzling sex, comedy and catchy music Dhoom grossed just about $102,000 over the weekend in about 30 theatres, with a weak $3,200 screen average. It opened in 40th place on the US boxoffice charts.

For a Yash Raj Films production with plenty of advertising over the desi channels for over two weeks, the gross was disappointing.

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After a Wednesday screening in Manhattan, several viewers said they liked the music, choreography and comedy, but the action scenes left them unsatisfied. "It looks very phony," said a 20-plus student. "In many places, especially in the last 10 minutes, the chase scene goes on and on."

If Dhoom follows the usual rate of attrition for Hindi films in North America, it will be down by about 50 percent this weekend, and will have to struggle to gross more than $220,000.

The box office grosses for Dhoom and Phir Milenge were not available for the United Kingdom but in most cases, the collections in UK mirror those in North America.

Unless Dhoom does well in the Gulf, in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, it will be written off as one of the disappointments of the year.

A far worse fate than Dhoom awaited Phir Milenge that was dead on arrival with a $37,000 gross in 27 theatres with an awful $1,380 screen average. It was at 63 on the box office charts for the weekend.

A couple of young fans coming out of the Lowes Multiplex in Times Square, New York, said while the film was well-intentioned, it lacked sustained drama. "I would ask my friends to see Philadelphia again rather than seeing this film," one of them said, referring to the Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington Oscar-winning film in which Hanks played an AIDS victim. "It [Phir Milenge] is not realistic enough, and it is not emotionally engaging either."

While Salman Khan could not enthuse the audiences with Phir Milenge, his Mujhse Shaadi Karogi is still showing in about a dozen theatres, though only for one or two shows a day. The movie could hang on for two or three weeks. It has already grossed about $920,000.