ADHM vs Shivaay Box Office Opening

The much-hyped box office clash between Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Ajay Devgn’s Shivaay has proved to be a major disappointment, as the bigger film (in terms of costs, scale and setting) has simply not performed upto expectations at multiplexes on Friday morning.

The top 10-15 cities are the major contributors to film business, these are the cities where the average ticket price is significantly higher than the rest of the country. And if these centres don’t perform for a big-budget film like ‘Shivaay’, the film will struggle to get anywhere close to recovering costs.

Ajay’s lack of popularity amongst the urban youth, especially the fairer sex, is one of the biggest reasons why the opening was so poor. The costs far exceeded the box office pull of the star and he did not have any support from a leading lady or a well-known director.

Cities like Bangalore and Kolkata were disastrous for ‘Shivaay’ with the occupancy in the morning ranging from 10-15%. At some places it was even lower. Others cities like Mumbai, Pune, NCR region were better, but way below ADHM.

In the core Hindi belt, ‘Shivaay’ is ahead but business in these centres were affected by the ‘Pre-Diwali’ period. It’s also nowhere close to the level at which ‘Krrish 3’ opened on the same day (4 days before Diwali holiday) 3 years ago.

In complete contrast, ADHM has opened very well at multiplexes. Select shows as early as 8AM on Friday morning were running close to capacity. A strong star cast, along with a popular director has helped the film get a good initial.

ADHM should win the first day at the box office, the collections are certain to be higher unless there is a major turnaround from ‘Shivaay’. The percentage of difference between the two films will depend on evening shows.