I’ve missed a few North American box office reports in recent weeks due to some family health problems, so let’s catch up on the big stories:
Gully Boy just had a monster opening weekend, bringing in $1,833,035 from 255 theaters ($7,188 average) from February 15-17, 2019, according to Bollywood Hungama. Including opening day returns from February 14 makes its total officially $2,129,483, but Monday’s Presidents Day holiday in the United States surely pushed that past the $2.5 million mark.
What the heck is going on with Uri: The Surgical Strike? It just finished its sixth weekend in North America with earnings of $169,506 from 51 theaters ($3,324 average), per Box Office Mojo. Wanna know how many 2018 releases earned more than $100K in their sixth weekend? Zero. Uri‘s continued popularity is remarkable. It closed out the weekend with total earnings of $3,958,534, but it’s past $4 million now thanks to Monday’s holiday.
On the flip side, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga fell off FAST. With Uri still making good money for exhibitors, Ek Ladki dropped 150 theaters going into its third weekend in order to make room for Gully Boy. As a consequence, Ek Ladki earned just $50,000 from 43 theaters ($1,163 average) over the weekend. With total earnings of $1,172,088 (including Presidents Day), it looks like Ek Ladki will struggle to hit $1.2 million here.
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi trailed just behind, with $30,625 from 24 theaters ($1,276 average) in its fourth weekend. It has total earnings of $1,358,850 thus far.
Simmba stuck around in one theater, adding $72 to its $5.1 million total.
And while I know Amavas played in at least one US theater over the weekend, I don’t have any earnings numbers for it. Suffice it to say, the numbers would certainly be worse that the horror film’s opening weekend last weekend: $606 from seven theaters ($87 average). Truly terrifying.
Sources: Bollywood Hungama and Box Office Mojo
I can vouch for Gully Boy–saw it on President’s Day and the theater was PACKED. The movie itself was also incredible and well worth the hype.
That’s great! I hope to check it out next week.
Hi. Wish you the very best in handling life’s challenges. Am curious to know if you have stopped doing movie reviews of late. At my interactions with some people in India, I have been mentioning your blog site as providing objective reviews; hence the query.
Thanks so much, Ashok. Movie reviews have shifted to the back burner simply because, for the last few months, I haven’t had many days with three consecutive hours to actually watch a movie. It was not an editorial choice, just a practical one for the time being. 😉 I’m hoping to make reviews more of a regular feature again as family pressures ease up, though I may concentrate on movies on streaming services if that fits into my schedule more easily. With luck I’ll be able to catch Gully Boy in the theater next week, so keep your fingers crossed for me. 🙂
Wish you the very best, Kathy. Here is a blog post which you might like: https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com/2019/02/21/management-lessons-from-movies-3-0
Thanks, Ashok. What a clever idea for a post!
Thanks, Kathy. Hope you do not mind my having mentioned your blog to the audience at the event.
I appreciate the free publicity, Ashok! 😉
Wishing you all the best on the family health issues.
Thank you, gospvg.
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