I updated my list of Bollywood movies streaming on Netflix to reflect one change: Salman Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger leaves the service on Friday, December 19. It’s not a great movie, but the novelty of the scenes shot in Cuba may make it worth a watch.
Salman Khan’s Kick held up well in North America, relieving fears that its business could meet the same fate as Jai Ho and drop dramatically in its second weekend in theaters. According to Bollywood Hungama, Kick earned $417,985 from 146 theaters in the United States and Canada during the weekend of August 1-3, 2014. That total is about forty percent of what Kick earned in its opening weekend. By comparison, in its second weekend, Jai Ho only earned about twenty percent of its first weekend total.
[Update: Box Office Mojo reports slightly higher figures for Kick‘s second weekend: $439,304 from 162 theaters for an average of $2,712 per screen. It lists the movie’s total North American earnings as $2,100,041.]
As with Kick‘s opening weekend, there’s an interesting difference between Kick‘s second weekend performance in the U.S. versus Canada. American theaters outnumbered Canadian theaters nearly seven-to-one, but Canada accounted for more than a quarter of the weekend’s total earnings. Note the difference in average earnings per screen (the combined average for both countries is $2,863):
Though Canadian Bollywood fans generally have a greater appetite for action films than American fans, the effect is most pronounced when it comes to Salman Khan’s movies. During Jai Ho‘s first weekend in theaters, the per-screen average in Canadian theaters was nearly double that of American theaters: $7,940 versus $3,994. As with Kick, the disparity became even greater in Jai Ho‘s second weekend: $2,082 versus $887.
Kick‘s total North American earnings stand at $2,038,946. During the week, it will pass 2 States to become the continent’s second highest earning Hindi film of 2014, behind The Lunchbox.
Here’s how other Hindi movies fared in North America over the weekend:
Source: Rentrak, via Bollywood Hungama
Salman Khan’s latest — Kick — scored big at the North American box office, and it did so in impressive style. Kick blew past the first weekend earnings of Khan’s other 2014 release — Jai Ho — and posted the second best opening weekend for a Hindi movie in North America so far this year.
Over the weekend of July 25-27, Kick earned $1,023,427 from 163 theaters ($6,279 average) in North America. Check out the difference in per-screen averages when those figures are broken down by country:
Kick‘s combined opening weekend gross ranks second for the year to date, less than $3,000 behind the opening weekend total of 2 States ($1,026,353). Kick‘s opening weekend per-screen average is third, trailing only The Lunchbox and 2 States.
[Update: Box Office Mojo reports significantly higher returns for Kick than the above figures from Rentrak, supplied by Bollywood Hungama. Mojo reports that Kick earned $1,071,373 from 177 theaters ($6,053 average), putting it comfortably ahead of 2 States for the best opening weekend of the year.]
Jai Ho‘s January opening weekend grossed $817,744 from 183 theaters ($4,469 average). In its second weekend — despite having no new Hindi movies in theaters to compete with — Jai Ho‘s business dropped by nearly 80%.
I suspect Kick will hold up better in its second weekend (which will also lack competition from any new Hindi films), thanks to its favorable summer release date and a slightly higher audience rating at IMDb (6.6 for Kick versus 6.0 for Jai Ho). When combined with its estimated mid-week earnings for the remainder of this week, even a disappointing second weekend would likely push Kick ahead of Queen on the list of highest earning Hindi films in North America in 2014. We’ll have to wait and see if it can best 2 States‘ total of $2,191,066 and move into second place behind The Lunchbox.
Three other Hindi movies remained in theaters in the shadow of Kick.
Source: Rentrak, via Bollywood Hungama
0 Stars (out of 4)
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Suspension of disbelief is one thing, but Kick asks its audience to forget everything they know about quality filmmaking for 146 minutes. Kick is boring, annoying, and offensively stupid.
Though no one associated with this turd comes off well, Kick is primarily a failure of storytelling. The moronic plot lacks any sense of organization. Explanations come out of left field. The characters — in particular Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s villainous rich guy, Faroz — operate without clear motivation. There’s nothing in this that makes a lick of sense.
Though Kick is a Salman Khan vehicle, the movie opens with Shaina (Jacqueline Fernandez) moping about in Warsaw, Poland. She shares a train ride with Himanshu (Randeep Hooda), a top cop visiting from India. Their families want the two of them to marry, but Shaina explains that she’s still mourning the end of her previous relationship.
The movie should’ve stopped at that point. When Randeep Hooda starts talking marriage — especially while looking cute in a sweater vest — the only answer is, “Yes.” Roll credits. Instead, we get forty-five minutes of flashbacks to Shaina’s romance with annoying lout Devi Lal (Khan).
It’s hard to believe that a woman intelligent enough to become a licensed psychiatrist would fall for a schmuck as irritating as Devi Lal, but Shaina does nonetheless. He dumps her after she suggests that — since he finds steady employment and conventional romance a kind of “hell” that interferes with his adrenaline addiction — they live with her dad after marriage. Devi Lal declares that he won’t be a live-in son-in-law and stalks off.
It takes nearly two hours before alleged genius cop Himanshu realizes that the master thief “Devil” he’s tracked to Warsaw is Shaina’s ex, Devi Lal, who’s managed to worm his way into Shaina’s care with a purported case of amnesia.
Things get increasingly stupid as politically connected healthcare tycoon Feroz is revealed to be Devil’s next target. Siddiqui plays Feroz as a cackling supervillain, but he doesn’t have a sinister agenda or plan for world domination. He’s just a rich guy who’s kind of a dick.
(Speaking of genitalia, did no one on the crew notice that Randeep’s nuts were practically busting out of his pants during Himanshu’s balcony drinking scene with Devi Lal?)
The explanation for Devi Lal’s transition from unemployed schmo to master thief hinges on writer-director Sajid Nadiadwala’s exploitation of disabled children to provoke audience sympathy. It’s tacky.
It also doesn’t hold up to scrutiny from a story perspective. No matter what Devil’s Robin Hood-like motivations are, he kills several Polish police officers who try to stop his destructive chase through downtown Warsaw (which may have actually been London, since Devil drives a red double-decker bus headed for King’s Cross).
But, this being a Salman Khan film, morality always tilts in Khan’s favor. No matter how many lives Devi Lal/Devil takes, he’s always the hero because his intentions were good. Like every Khan character, Devi Lal’s only flaw is that he doesn’t have a girlfriend when the movie begins.
There’s nothing good about this movie. The performances are terrible. Even the choreography sucks because it has to accommodate Khan’s stiffness.
Enough. We’ve seen this all before. Kick just takes the typical Khan movie to jaw-dropping new lows.
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Salman Khan’s latest action film, Kick, opens in the Chicago area on July 25, 2014. A cast that includes accomplished actors like Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Randeep Hooda and a screenplay by novelist Chetan Bhagat lend Kick an air of sophistication.
Kick opens on Friday in six local theaters: AMC River East 21 in Chicago, Regal Gardens Stadium 1-6 in Skokie, AMC Showplace Niles 12 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, Regal Cantera Stadium 17 in Warrenville, and AMC Loews Woodridge 18 in Woodridge. It has a listed runtime of 2 hrs. 30 min.
The cute romcom Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania gets a third week at the South Barrington 30, Cantera 17, and MovieMax Cinemas in Niles.
Other Indian movies showing in the Chicago area this weekend include Drushyam (Telugu w/no subtitles) at the Cinemark at Seven Bridges in Woodridge and MovieMax, which is also carrying Thirumanam Ennum Nikkah (Telugu), Alludu Sreenu (Telugu), Sathuranga Vettai (Tamil), Velaiyilla Pattathari (Tamil), and Bangalore Days (Malayalam).
Two new Hindi film trailers released today. Coming first to theaters — though not in the U.S., I suspect — is the cute-looking Vir Das comedy Amit Sahni Ki List, releasing July 18.
One of the biggest movies of the year — Salman Khan’s Kick — hits theaters the following weekend on July 25.
I’m going to have to wait until an English-subtitled version of the trailer is released in order to make heads or tails of the plot. The romantic storyline involving beardless Salman and Jacqueline Fernandez looks awful, but I’m reassured by the presence of Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Randeep Hooda in the bearded Salman storyline. Kick could be a lot of fun.
Following a less-than-stellar opening weekend performance in American theaters, Jai Ho‘s earnings cratered in its second weekend. According to Box Office Mojo, Jai Ho‘s earnings fell nearly eighty percent in its second weekend, earning just $176,214 in the U.S. and Canada.
For comparison’s sake, theaters that carried 11-week-old films like Philomena or The Hunger Games: Catching Fire earned more per screen ($1,702 and $1,144 respectively) than did theaters that gave Jai Ho a second week ($904).
Jai Ho‘s total U.S./Canada earnings of $1,187,266 so far put it well off the pace of recent Salman Khan films like Dabangg 2 ($2,519,190), Ek Tha Tiger ($2,347,774), and Bodyguard ($1,834,384).
Sadly, the Abhay Deol-Preeti Desai romcom One By Two isn’t opening in the Chicago area on Friday, January 31, 2014. That leaves local Bollywood fans with two options in theaters: Dhoom 3 and Jai Ho.
Jai Ho got off to a rocky start in U.S. theaters last weekend. Despite opening on more screens (195) than any previous Salman Khan film, it earned just $840,506 in the U.S. Its per-screen earnings of $4,310 are the lowest of any Khan film since Veer opened in January, 2010, with per-screen earnings of $3,637.
Jai Ho carries over for a second week at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago, Regal Gardens Stadium 1-6 in Skokie, Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, AMC Loews Woodridge 18 in Woodridge, and Regal Cantera Stadium 17 in Warrenville.
Dhoom 3 gets a seventh week at the South Barrington 30.
Other Indian movies showing in the Chicago area this weekend include Pandavulu Pandavulu Thummeda (Telugu) at the Muvico Rosemont 18 in Rosemont and Inga Enna Solluthu (Tamil) at the AMC Loews Streets of Woodfield 20 in Schaumburg. The Golf Glen 5 will carry Chhota Bheem and the Throne of Bali, Drishyam (Malayalam), Ezhu Sundara Rathrikal (Malayalam), Heart Attack (Telugu), and Rummy (Tamil).
0.5 Stars (out of 4)
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Jai Ho is as lazy and lacking in self-awareness as a movie can be. It ignores its own shallow grasp of morality to promote the message of every recent Salman Khan movie: the answer to government corruption is a single, violent man.
Just how shallow is the take on morality in Jai Ho, a remake of a Telugu movie (Stalin) based on a Hollywood movie (Pay It Forward)? The notion of “paying it forward” — you help three people, then they each help three more people, and so on — is developed by a middle schooler in the Hollywood version, and by a man in his late forties in Jai Ho.
Of course it’s good to do nice things for other people. But the characters in Jai Ho talk about it so damned much, it’s as though the filmmakers think they invented the idea. “Generosity and helpfulness can benefit individuals and society? Who knew? Write forty minutes of dialogue to belabor the point!”
The title character, Jai (Salman Khan), who’s apparently a professional doer-of-favors, following his expulsion from the army, tries to popularize the notion of “paying it forward.” Everything is fine until his mom tells him that some people may not wish to participate, and that he shouldn’t be disappointed by that.
Jai’s realization that his idea may not be universally embraced causes him to lose his mind. In a blind rage, he attacks a guy harassing a street urchin. The guy just happens to be connected to a corrupt politician who winds up trying to murder Jai’s family. The situation is resolved by Jai fighting dozens of guys single-handedly and Suniel Shetty plowing through traffic in a tank.
Let’s get this straight: Jai’s responds to learning that there are mean people in the world by going on a violent rampage, endangering his family and friends and any unfortunate motorists who get in the way of Suniel Shetty’s tank. Way to make the world a better place, Jai!
What’s even more depressing is that violence really is Jai’s only recourse to stop the corrupt bureaucrat, played by Danny Denzongpa. The only evidence of systemic political change as a result of Jai’s gory heroics is that another politician — played by Mohnish Bahl — decides to look the other way.
The movie relies on emotional pandering in place of solid storytelling. Producer-director Sohail Khan trots out disabled kids anytime he wants to bring the audience to tears and soldiers when he wants to stoke the fires of patriotism. Lest the audience fail to grasp the cinematic shorthand, there are musical cues and sound effects to let them know what emotions they are supposed to feel.
As with most of Salman Khan’s recent roles, his character’s only flaw at the beginning of the movie is that he doesn’t yet have a girlfriend. Daisy Shah is shoehorned into the story to fill the love interest role, even though she has nothing to do with the main plot. She’s never imperiled because of her relationship with Jai, she doesn’t partake in Jai’s do-gooder scheme, and she disappears during the climax.
There is exactly one good thing about Jai Ho, and that is Naman Jain as Jai’s young nephew, Kabir. He’s legitimately funny, and he’s by far the best actor in the bunch. Jai Ho should’ve made Kabir the main character, borrowing more from Pay It Forward and less from Stalin. That might’ve been a good movie.
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It’s been over a year since we last saw Salman Khan on the big screen, but he returns to Chicago area cinemas on January 24, 2014, with Jai Ho. The premise sounds a lot like Pay It Forward, if Kevin Spacey had to beat the crap out of a bunch of guys.
Jai Ho opens on Friday at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago, Regal Gardens Stadium 1-6 in Skokie, Big Cinemas Golf Glen 5 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, AMC Loews Woodridge 18 in Woodridge, and Regal Cantera Stadium 17 in Warrenville. It has a listed runtime of 2 hrs. 23 min.
Karle Pyaar Karle departs area theaters following one of the worst opening weekend performances I can remember. According to Bollywood Hungama, the movie earned $2,466 from twenty screens in the U.S., for an average of just $123 per screen. Holy cow, that’s bad. Theaters lost money on this dog.
Dedh Ishqiya gets a third week at the South Barrington 30, with earnings of $251,730 in the U.S. so far. The theater also carries over Dhoom 3 for a sixth weekend.
Other Indian movies showing in the Chicago area this weekend include 1: Nenokkadine (Telugu) at the Cinemark Century Stratford Square in Bloomingdale, Cinemark at Seven Bridges in Woodridge, and the Golf Glen 5, which will also carry Drishyam (Malayalam), Oru Indian Pranayakatha (Malayalam), and Uyyala Jampala (Telugu).