Samrat Prithviraj had a slow start at the box office with occupancy in the 15% range in the morning which is low for a film of this scale. The advances for the film did not really happen though there was better movement from afternoon onwards on Thursday. It would have been great if it could have trebled its advance on the last day but it went 2.5 times higher which is still better than the norm which is around double but irrespective of that advances were very low.
The opening of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 gave the industry a new lease of life and now the initial of Samrat Prithviraj will be seen as a dampener but it is not surprising and will happen to many of the films which were due for release before the pandemic as now films have to be more commercial and hold more mass appeal.
Samrat Prithviraj can still work at the box office as its a very Indian story and can appeal to the Hindi belts from Gujarat to MP to UP but because the main lead Akshay Kumar seems to be playing a subdued character even in a big scale film the interest in that initial mass and youth audience is limited. But here the makers cannot really do much as they have stay true to the historal character but for the box office today a fictional chracter with this scale would be a better bet. Actually a better bet is not the right way to put it but a better bet for the initial would be right as it allows you to go more mass and more cinematic liberties.
Now it is about how the story will engage the audience and how many out there want to know about Samrat Prithviraj. There has no been no release (The Kashmir Files being an exception) which has worked with a big pick up on Saturday post the pandemic and it would be a great result if this film can achieve that. As the film has a wider appeal and has potential to pick up and do well in the Hindi belts it can still work despite this low start but there is a lot of work to be done.
There are tax exemptions in some states and a few more might follow and although these dont really help much in terms of collections nowadays they can help the film with some extra traction. There were also two South films releases with the dubbed film Vikram getting no reponse and cancelled shows all over the place while bilingual Major was better and some audience turned up at some multiplexes of Mumbai and Delhi but still a dull start.
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