Horror comedy Bhooth Bangla is seeing decent to good traction in advances at the Indian box office. As of 4:30 PM on Wednesday, the Akshay Kumar starrer has sold nearly 20,000 tickets at the two national chains, PVRINOX and Cinepolis, for its opening day. Of that, 10,500 tickets have been sold for previews on Thursday and 9,000 tickets for the Friday opening day.
It will cross 25,000 ticket sales by EOD today, likely closer to 30,000. Looking further ahead, the film is on track to sell around 60,000-70,000 tickets by the time the preview shows start tomorrow night. In comparison, the previous two Akshay Kumar films, Housefull 5 and Jolly LLB 3, sold 96,000 and 45,000 tickets across the two national chains on their opening day. Jolly LLB 3 had fractured pre-sales due to VPF conflict between exhibitors and distributors, which means Housefull 5 is a better comp. The direct comp would suggest an opening day of around Rs. 15 crore nett, inclusive of previews for Bhooth Bangla. Provided it gets better walkups on the day, it could push a bit higher.
This will be a good start for the film, especially if it gets a thumbs-up in the audience reception. The costs involved are very reasonable, and the recovery shouldn’t be an issue as well. With solid non-theatrical recoveries, the pressure on theatrical performance is relatively lower. That said, theatrical validation remains crucial, and the opening provides a platform. If audience reception is positive, the film has the potential to build on this start and deliver a good lifetime total.
The industry is currently riding on a positive wave of a huge blockbuster that is Dhurandhar: The Revenge. Before that, Mardaani 3 and The Kerala Story 2 did reasonably well. While they weren’t massive HITs or something, their outcome was certainly positive. If Bhooth Bangla turns out well, it will be another shot in the arm. There are some other small and medium scale films slated to release next month. The hope will be that Bhooth Bangla and those films continue the positive trend.