BABY JOHN UNDERPFORMS; EARNS LESS THAN PUSHPA 2 AND MUFASA; ALL HOPE NOT LOST FOR VARUN DHAWAN-STARRER
The last big film of 2024, Baby John, was released on Wednesday, December 25 on the occasion of Christmas. Starring Varun Dhawan, the film looked like a grand action entertainer but the buzz was limited. Yet, the film was expected to open at around Rs. 15 crores. But shockingly, it had an opening of Rs. 10.75 crores. The word of mouth is just decent and is nothing extraordinary. Hence, today, Thursday, December 26, it’ll face a drop and might collect around Rs. 6 crores. At this rate, its five-day weekend will be in the range of Rs. 45-50 crores.
Thankfully, Baby John will have the advantage of a part holiday on Tuesday, December 31 followed by a big holiday on Wednesday, January 1. There’s no film releasing next Friday, January 3. The competition on January 10and 17is also very weak. Hence, it can have a good run until January 24.
What dealt a blow to Baby John’s collections were the collections of Pushpa 2 – The Ruleas well as Mufasa: The Lion King. The Allu Arjun-starrer collected Rs. 13.75 croreson Christmas day, nearly 3 crores more than Baby John. This is despite Pushpa 2 being in its third week.
And that’s not all. Mufasa: The Lion King collected Rs. 25 lakhs more than Baby John as it earned Rs. 11 crores on December 25. This was unexpected as many felt that the film had underperformed. It opened at Rs. 7 crores on Friday and it jumped to Rs. 11.50 crores on Saturday and Rs. 14.25 crores on Sunday. On Monday, it had a smaller drop than Friday as it earned Rs. 5.25 crores. On Christmas Eve, Tuesday, December 24, the collections jumped to Rs. 6.75 crores. However, a nearly 65% jumpwas unexpected on December 25. It proved that it’ll cross the Rs. 100 crore mark and that it’ll overperform on holidays as it’s a film meant for families.
