Neeraj Ghaywan’s critically acclaimed movie ‘Homebound’, featuring Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa, has ended its opening weekend in disappointing fashion at the domestic box office. Although India’s film for the Oscars has been welcomed with praises abroad, there still remains massive apathy within the home audience. After a dismal Friday. Grossing around ₹30 lakh and a paltry Saturday of around ₹50 lakh, a Sunday estimate of around ₹50 lakh appears in the offing.
Thus, the net collection within the first three days is a very disappointing ₹1.30 crore. This muted response is a continuing challenge for content-driven cinema to crack theatre windows, especially with something darkly, socially relevant no tickets against a very heavily commercial release backdrop. It shows an initial promise of some prestige like an Oscar nod or backing from a big production house not really being sufficient to guarantee a strong box office run.
Sluggish Opening Weekend Trajectory
The film seemed to have done a slow business over the weekend and is expected to hold the road depending on mouth publicity for any resilience in the future. The opening day reportedly fetched something in the region of ₹30 lakh which is far lesser than what the opening day collections of the lead actors’ previous films have.
While Saturday saw some modest gain bringing collections to ₹50 lakh – a 66.67% increase it did not suffice to near the ₹2 crore mark, which is usually considered a bare minimum expectation for a presenting weekend.
Industry sources estimate Sunday numbers to stay put at the same level as Saturday, adding another ₹50 lakh to the cumulative figures. Overall occupancy did not fare much, particularly for the morning and afternoon shows, proving the lack of excitement among much of the cinema-going demographic.
Critical Acclaim vs. Commercial Reality
“Homebound” found a bit of fame owing to its presence at several international film festivals and very positive reviews from critics and industry insiders. However, this unanimous critical appreciation could not translate into box office success.
Conspicuously, there is a vast chasm between utmost critical adulation and near-failure commerciality, thus showing the divide between these contrasting parameters in the present Indian market, which seems to suggest that either box-office commerciality might in the end be an unfair yardstick for measuring the final success of a film; rather, paramount success will await it on OTT, where such heartfelt narratives stand a better chance of finding their due audience.”
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.
