After months of lull at single screens when nothing was really working out at these properties, a bit of relief has come in, with Bhaiyyaji managing fair business at some of these properties in North India.
Madgaon Express, Swatantrya Veer Savarkar and Laapata Ladies all catered to multiplex audiences with only Srikanth and 12th Fail doing some sort of business on single screens.
Bhaiyyaji has done just the opposite as it has drawn audiences in UP-Bihar-Jharkhand-Madhya Pradesh.
As a result, business at single screens as well as in Tier 2/3 cities' multiplexes has been far better when compared to multiplexes in major urban centres.
Not that the numbers are really big, but for a controlled budget movie which has Manoj Bajpayee acting in his 100th film and also producing it, a start of Rs 1.44 crore (Rs 14.4 million) leading to a weekend tally of Rs 6 crores (Rs 60 million)* has been fair business.
It could well have added between Rs 25 lakhs to Rs 50 lakhs (Rs 2.5 million to Rs 5 million) if not for the IPL matches on Friday and Sunday.
What needs to be seen is where the film goes from here. It still needs to keep collecting revenue if it has to enter a safe zone and that would be a challenge for sure.
If the film stays stable on weekdays, then the next couple of weeks would be quite interesting for the Manoj Bajpayee starrer.
*Estimates. Final numbers awaited
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
