This year, the highly anticipated movie release for Valentine’s Day was ‘Love Aaj Kal’. Early reviews indicate that it is selling well at theaters around India. It earned up to Rs. 12.75 crore (127600000 INR) so far – a lot of its income came from people who attended screenings in metro areas such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Hyderabad. In other parts of the country where there isn’t an audience interested in Mr. Ali’s films, numbers were even lower than predicted – only slightly higher than usual attendance rates on Friday evenings when coupled with bachelors going out on dates or partying afterward.
The opening for this movie largely came about due to the anticipation of audiences wanting to see Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan on the silver screen- receiving an increase in interest of around 30% because it was Valentine’s Day, where people responded mostly negatively towards the trailer. Early responses from audiences were also predominantly negative, but Love Ajkal might have a chance of not going downhill throughout this week like Ali’s last movie ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’, with Friday being its best day out of them all. All these early trends still hold weight- only when we find out what happens over the next few days will we know whether or not this holds true.
While multiplexes usually peak for evening and night showings, the business for Love Aaj Kal has decreased over time. And this is because of negative word-of-mouth reviews. Malang continues to perform well at the box office with early estimations suggesting Day eight collections in the range of Rs. 2.50 – 3.00 crores, which is a significant increase from last year’s totals.
