Box Office: Are “Chhalawa” and “Wrong No. 2” underperforming? , We think “No” and here’s Why

Every film has a certain audience. There are films like “Punjab Nahi Jaungi”, “Jawani Phir Nahi Aani” and “Teefa in Trouble”. These films have a wide audience and may get a massive opening, and also keep running in cinemas for weeks with almost similar momenta in the following weeks because the screens are few and the demand is overwhelming. Other films have a comparatively limited audience, no matter how good they are. These may launch at box office with average numbers and keep running with similar momentum till a saturation point has been achieved, when the film has been watched by all its target audience, e-g- “Cake”, “3 Bahadur” , “Karachi Se Lahore” and “Manto”, or these films can release on specific holidays, and can launch with huge numbers but the momentum in this case soon starts to drop as the target audience is limited and has already watched the film during its first week, meaning the saturation point had been achieved faster than usual. The latter case is of this year’s Eid releases, “Wrong No. 2” and “Chhalawa”.

Both these films had a capacity to earn somewhere between 12 and 18 crores. Both films opened to great numbers, courtesy of Eid and the Bollywood ban, but both films faced a fall in their second week since most of the targeted audience had already watched the films by now. This fall was expected after the extraordinary first week that both movies had enjoyed at box office. Nevertheless both films have managed to maintain a steady run over their second week as both films recorded a combine total of 5.5 crore, which is actually a good number as this is more or less what a good mainstream film earns on it’s first week in Pakistan.

“Wrong No. 2” raked in 3.16 crore over its second week after an outstanding and extended week-one of 13.78 crore. Film’s two week total now stands at 16.94 crore and by the time you read this, the film would have already gone past the 17 crore mark. On the other hand “Chhalawa”, as per Entertainment Pakistan, had collected 12.45 crore during the first extended week, followed by a sum of 2.35 crore over it’s second week. It’s two week total now stands at 14.8 crore.

A new local film “Kataksha” has been released today but that film due to its horror genre will catter an altogether different audience, hence “Wrong No. 2” and “Chhalawa” have got another week to continue their steady run at box office.