It was the second bad weekend in a row for new Hindi films widely released in the United States and Canada. From November 7-9, 2014, The Shaukeens earned $52,377 from 75 theaters, a pathetic per-screen average of $698. The comedy suffered from a confusing, limited marketing campaign. Posters for the movie prominently featured Akshay Kumar, but his role was billed as a cameo (it’s more than that). The trailer didn’t run in local theaters, so few people likely knew the movie was even coming out. Given all that, the choice to release it into 75 theaters in North America — a relatively high number — is baffling.

On the other hand, the drama Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain performed very well in its debut on a single screen in New York, from which it earned $5,948. The film opens in Los Angeles on Friday and Chicago on November 28 before releasing in India on December 5.

The weekend’s other surprise came from the Hindi-Punjabi-English film Chaar Sahibzaade, an animated depiction of Sikh history. It earned $89,131 from just 15 theaters (none of them in the Chicago area), an average of $5,942 per screen.

In its third weekend, Happy New Year added another $361,148 from 106 theaters ($3,407 average), bringing its North American total to $3,559,926.

Source: Rentrak, via Bollywood Hungama