When the promo of Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 was unveiled, it made a good, not an excellent impression. In fact, there were many who believed that the absence of the two leading men from the original (Divyendyu Sharma, Raayo Bakhirta) would hurt the sequel’s opening to some extent at the least. Though it was still pretty much on the cards that around 4 crore opening day and a weekend in excess of 13 crore would certainly be delivered, no one really expected what actually unfolded at the Box Office.
As it turned out to be the case, the Luv Ranjan directed film went on to not just take a superb opening but also had a very good Saturday and Sunday as well. Yes, the cricket match on Sunday didn’t allow the team headed by Kartik Aryan to show the kind of further escalation that it deserved. Still, a weekend score of 22.75 crore means that the film is already in the HIT zone. The opening weekend is now amongst Top 20 of the year so far, which conveys a lot for a film with almost newcomer star cast and a mid-level release in just 1400 screens.
The film has six open days for itself since Shaandaar arrives on Thursday (due to Dussehra holiday). It would be interesting to see how the two films targeting the same audience fare in weeks to come.
Another prominent release of the week, Wedding Pullav, couldn’t find any audience for itself. The reviews were not positive either while word of mouth was negligible too. With a weekend of less than 1 crore, the newcomer outing is a Box Office disaster and would struggle to find itself in the running during weekdays.
As for the other releases of the week, Chinar Daastaan-E-Ishq, Hogaya Dimaagh Ka Dahi, Bumper Draw, Operation Green Hunt and Jaatiwad, most of them couldn’t even gain an all-India release. The places where they did release, the collections were negligible.
Note: All collections as per production and distributor sources.