The celebrations were indeed short lived.
Last week's British chart topper Bride & Prejudice was knocked off to the fourth place on the chart, losing 48 percent of the audiences from its first week.
For Aishwarya Rai, the film is one for the records; it is her highest grossing film ever.
But the steep decline in England, and the lukewarm reception the film had in India, is certainly a worry for American distributor Miramax. It is set for a limited US release on December 25, with a slow expansion set across January and February.
December is a highly competitive month in North America and films that do not open to strong reviews and box office receipts will find it difficult to expand successfully in the coming weeks.
| |||||||||||
Oscar hopes for Bride & Prejudice were buried last week as most major reviewers in United Kingdom gave the film a hostile reception. And yet, it may still have a small chance at the Golden Globe nominations, as they are divided into drama and comedy/musical sections.
In the United Kingdom, the film has grossed a decent but unimpressive $6 million in 10 days. At its current rate of attrition, the musical comedy making about $1.6 million over the last weekend, may have to struggle to earn $10 million.
Director Gurinder Chadha's previous film, the surprise hit Bend It Like Beckham, grossed about $18 million in United Kingdom.
Her new film's precarious position in the UK is immediately evident when compared to the box office decline of other films in the top 10 list. The box office in UK was dominated by Shark Tale last week that grossed about $7 million on 570 screens. It was followed by American comedy White Chicks and surprise horror hit Saw that declined by about 15 percent in its third week. In its second week, it had seen a similar decline too.
A drop of 48 percent to 50 percent in the second week is usually acceptable for films such as Shark Tale that open to huge numbers in the first week. But for a film like Bride & Prejudice that opened with a good but unspectacular $3 million in its first weekend, the second week was anything but cheerful. It was still playing on 376 screens but now, may lose about 50 percent of the screen count.
If the movie that cost about $8 million does well in North America, Australia and New Zealand, it would be profitable. To recoup its production and advertising costs, it has to earn about $30 million in movie theatres and in video and DVD sales.
