After a blockbuster Diwali weekend with films like Lucky Bhaskar, KA and Amaran striking gold at the box office with superb revenues for two weeks, trade circles received a big jolt this week with notable releases like Kanguva and Matka failing miserably in all territories.
Tollywood hero Varun Tej’s period drama Matka, which released amid decent expectations due to the strong content in trailers, is destined to emerge as the biggest flop in recent times after a disastrous first two days at the ticket windows. The Karuna Kumar directional took a terrible opening with less than one crore share on day one. Due to awful reviews and disappointing word of mouth, the second day collections nosedived further to hand over a huge embarrassment for Varun Tej.
Matka was made on a budget in upwards of 40 Crores and the theatrical recovery looks negligible because the two days share is just over one crore. The weekend occupancies are shockingly low and there is very little chance for the film to see a turnaround of the trade status.
The biggest release of the season after NTR’s Devara is Suriya’s ambitious magnum opus ‘Kanguva’ which released amid high hopes because of the extravagant set-up and star-studded cast. Unfortunately, the Sarutai Siva directional couldn’t meet the expectations due to bland script and tedious narration.
Kanguva took a modest opening on its first day with 40 Crore gross worldwide. But, the collections plummeted on the second day with only 13 Crores gross from all territories. The total share is around 26 Crores. As the public talk is very dull, there is hardly any chance for the film to put on a strong show during the crucial first weekend. In all likelihood, Kanguva is headed for a disaster.
Kanguva need to collect around 170 Crores share for break-even. But, going by the current trend, trade analysts predict that it will end up with a theatrical share of less than 50 Crores.
