The movie Ikkis, which was directed by Sriram Raghavan and featured Agastya Nanda alongside the legendary Dharmendra, has hit the theaters with a big problem.
The biopic of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, after having a promising extended opening weekend, managed to earn over ₹20 crore, but then the film saw its first Monday fairly sharp drop.
The war drama made only ₹1.35 crore on its fifth day, thus leading its total domestic collection to be around ₹21.50 crore. Although the movie has been praised for its emotional depth and technical skills, the overpowering force of the top-grosser Dhurandhar, which remains the first choice among the audiences for the new releases as it is still playing in theaters, has been a constant factor even for other releases.
Ikkis Monday Meltdown
The “First Monday” test is usually the one that determines the length of a movie’s stay in theaters, and in the case of Ikkis, the results show a worrying trend.
The film initially had a great start with ₹7 crore on New Year’s Day, but the earnings have gone up and down, and finally, the film made only a low-single-digit figure when the workweek started.
This Monday meltdown is one of the patterns that are common back to the film’s Sunday performance of ₹5 crore. The decrease in audience indicates that the specific audience who turn up and the cinephiles are the only viewers who can appreciate Raghavan’s storytelling; the mass appeal that is necessary to maintain a big-budget war biopic is still lacking. With Hindi visual audience numbers around a poor 8-9%, the film is struggling to turn the critical acclaim into regular viewers.
Dhurandhar Dominance
The dominance of Dhurandhar at the Indian box office is still the main hurdle for Ikkis. The spy thriller, which stars Ranveer Singh and is directed by Bhushan Kumar, is still in the fifth week of its theatrical run and is showing numbers far superior to those of new competitors.
On that particular Monday, Ikkis could only manage to earn ₹1.4 crore, whereas Dhurandhar made a whopping ₹4 crore, thus proving its strong hold on the market to be historic.
The “patriotic action” genre has seen a huge overlap, and consequently, Ikkis is left with scanty screens and barely any attention. The film, which pays a fitting final tribute to the late Dharmendra, is, however, being squeezed out by a giant that does not show any signs of slowing down, and thus the road ahead is very narrow for the newbie’s drama.
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.
