The eagerly awaited war movie, ‘120 Bahadur’, by Farhan Akhtar, which tells the story of the Battle of Rezang La during the 1962 Sino-Indian War, opened at the domestic box office on Friday to an unexpectedly quiet reaction. The film, despite its powerfully emotional trailer, and strong critical reviews, which praised its scale and direction, among others, managed to make only ₹2.35 crore net approximately on its first day.
Such a weak beginning shows that the historical drama’s path to box office victory is going to entirely depend on a substantial increase during the critical first weekend.The movie that tells about the extraordinary bravery of the 120 Indian soldiers who stood their ground against a huge Chinese force was expected to attract a large audience mainly in metropolitan cities and urban multiplexes.
However, it had to compete heavily against the simultaneous release of the adult comedy Mastiii 4, which surprisingly got slightly ahead with a collection of ₹2.50 crore. The soft opening has taken trade analysts by surprise who had predicted an opening in the ₹3-4 crore range, hence placing a huge burden on word-of-mouth to pull in the audience in the coming days.
Occupancy And Multiplex Performance
Multiplex chains in different parts of India have given the same initial reports of low turnout. On its first day, the average all-over India occupancy for ‘120 Bahadur’ remained at a very low level of 5%.
Although multiplexes in important Southern cities, such as Chennai, showed somewhat better figures, the Hindi belt centers, like Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, were still reporting only limited attendance.
The movie’s distinctive and historically focused subject matter may have had a hard time dealing with the more commercial and franchise-driven competition, resulting in slow advance ticket sales that were unable to generate the required Day 1 figure of 1000.
The Weekend’s Crucial Test
Now the fate of the movie is to be decided by the next two days. Although Farhan Akhtar’s performance as Major Shaitan Singh has been praised all over the world, the box office still wants more than just good reviews.
It is crucial that there is a big rise in the collections on Saturday and Sunday in order to make up for the weak beginning. According to the trade analysts, ‘120 Bahadur’ should set its target at a total opening weekend collection of ₹8–10 crore to survive in the race.
If the good word spreads and the evening and weekend shows get booked massively, this courageous war saga still has a chance to change the box office story from a slow march to a steady run.
A recent media graduate, Bhumi Vashisht is currently making a significant contribution as a committed content writer. She brings new ideas to the media sector and is an expert at creating strategic content and captivating tales, having working in the field from past four months.
