Haiwaan took a dull opening though its probably better than the advances though that makes little difference to the overall picture. The film sold a dismal 7.75k tickets at the national chains in advance which suggest an opening of under 2 crore nett though it should do better than that as the day passes. The advances are 40% less than a film like Pati Patni Aur Woh Do.

The problem is even if you get to 3 crore or higher it hardly matters as films featuring stars today have limitations as to where you can go when the opening is low while its an open field for films without stars. Today a film featuring any star not just Akshay Kumar cannot afford to open this low as it makes it practically impossible to recover unless some miracle happens.

The trailer had nothing going for it barring the presence of Akshay Kumar but the star factor just does not work today how it used to a decade or so back. The film obviously got green lighted as the numbers worked and does not need much from theatrical but the problem here also is when theatrical does not come then those digital slabs get activated which are in most contracts today.

The film looks a psycho thriller and the Hindi belt mass audience hardly has much interest in the genre anyway leaving the film with a limited audience. On top there is competition from the likes of Hanuman Ansh and Mirzapur which means far lesser screens than a Akshay Kumar starrer should get, not that extra screens would have made much of a difference.