Box Office Predictions: Phata Poster Nikhla Hero And The Lunchbox

After two debacles Mausam and Teri Meri Kahaani, Shahid Kapoor is
returning with Phata Poster Nikhla Hero. The film's promotion has been
fine and there also appears to be decent entertainment quotient in
there. The film's songs, though melodious, could have done better with
chartbuster status though. However, given Rajkumar Santoshi's good run
with comedies, one expects good, clean and family oriented content in
there.

Releasing on a wide scale, the film
should take an opening in the 50%-60%
range and then see gradual increase over the weekend. Since the film
is made with family audience in mind, good escalation
is expected with positive word of mouth coming into play. However it will face
competition from Grand Masti which is expected to find continued good footfalls
especially from the youth segment.

Meanwhile, for that segment of audience
which frequents upmarket multiplexes,
there is Irrfan Khan's The Lunchbox which would find its share of
eyeballs as well. Though the film is being
widely pitched as India's official
nomination for Oscars, one can only say
that first and foremost step would be for
it to find an audience in theatres. In that
aspect, there has been good base created for it already from the awareness
standpoint at least. Though one doesn't
expect a riot at the ticket counters on the
first day of the film's arrival, expect
terrific reviews resulting in enhanced
footfalls.