Some excerpts from http://www.samachar.com/film/fullstory.html:

`Black is a movement`
Sify Movies

“It’s no longer a film, it’s a movement!” says Amitabh Bachchan as his latest starrer Black acquires cult proportions across the country.

The latest in the film’s long line of quick impressive and utterly singular achievements is a large advertisement placed by an individual in Mumbai’s largely-circulated tabloid Mid-day.

The ad, issued by a company called Sunny Advertising, comes with a ‘warning’— ‘This is not a paid advertisement.’

Sanjay Leela Bhansali laughs with a mixture of joy and embarrassment. “It’s truly gratifying to have people rally around the film in such large numbers. Every section of the audience has become possessive of Black which is very reassuring for a filmmaker like me. I took a big risk and it has paid off. At the same time I don’t want my colleagues who are gifted in their own right and who are doing their own thing, to feel that my achievement undermines theirs. The ad in Mid-day is very touching."

"And I’m thankful to the people behind it who have gone to so much trouble and expense to let the world know how much they love my film. But the other films mentioned in the ad are by colleagues whom I respect. I don’t want fans of Black to create the impression that the achievements by others are in any way less valuable. Not at all! There‘s room in our cinema for every kind of film. I’m as happy doing my own thing as other filmmakers are doing theirs.”

I think, for "visually handicaped and challenged" people's!!!!!!sake, this film should be made tax free. So it and they both get their dues!

Black is starting in Ottawa AMC-24 from today. 4 shows daily on the weekends and 3 shows daily on the weekdays.

In Toronto too, # of shows have been increased. Its 4 shows daily on the weekends and 3 shows daily on the weekdays, at all three Albion, Woodside and AMC-24 Toronto.

Here are first few Box Office collection #s for BLACK. If this is a flop, then what's a Hit??

http://www.planetbollywood.com/BoxOffic ... 113536.php

Totals from a few territory/circuits (approximate) are :-

Bombay - 3.20 crore from 85 prints

Delhi/UP 1.40 crore from 30 prints(sold for 1.5 crores here)

West Bengal 50 lakhs from 18 prints

Another excerpt:

´Black´ :- As expected ´Black´ gets very good collections in Multiplexes and big cities like Bombay , Delhi , Calcutta , Bangalore and Madras but it collected dull figures in single-screen cinemas and cities . However very few prints of the film were released in North and East India .

The producers Applause Entertainments sold the movie at very low rates in circuits like C.I. and C.P. (incurring table losses ) but even then ´Black will lose in a few circuits .
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CP, CI is only a small %age of All India Box Office. I don't think, it will be a flop even in CP CI.

It will take a while before trade pundits eat their words and change its Box Office status slowly and reluctantly.

When I started this thread, poll was for fun and voteable only until the two films released. It was for prediction and not for declaring Box Office status. A total vote count of 10, on zulm, can't be truthful for 10 million of filmgoers. I wish.

My reference to trade pundits was for trade pundits who declared it a flop, (not just predicting), after the release and having seen audience reaction.

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BTW, there was one instance many years ago:
Trade pundits, after the film released, called it a 'B' grade film and said the film may be able to recover its cost.
A week or two later they called it profitable.
A few weeks later they said, it will cross one crore per territory (a big amount those days).
Then Two Crores----
In the end they said, "No one can predict how much will this film gross"

Quiz: Which film was it??

My guess is SHOLAY(a classic without doubt) though I wonder if it was MAINE PYAR KIYA too(mediocre film IMHO)!

Sholay...that statement was issued by Salim-Javed, when all the "reputed" trade analysts in those days were predicting that "3 chhuha and 3 maharathi' ( the name for Sholay..another name being Chholey..).....

Those included some biggies like the now defunct Illustrated weekly...

Well anyways, hit or miss!! dvd is releasing in 2-3 days, mostlikely on coming Tuesday?
dvdunlimited to confirm pls?

QSQT

rana will send you a free dvd if you are right?

After I turned my tid bit into quiz and the answers posted, it became obvious to me that many films fall into this category. Films becoming super hits when they predicted a flop or average. Sholay, QSQT, HAHK, Dosti etc.
But, the film about which a trade magazine finally admitted that " no one can predict how much money it will make" was NAGINA.

SHABD??

Here are some second week #s as per Indiafm:
http://www.indiafm.com/boxoffice/collec ... ~in~Mumbai

Delhi City:
Delhi - 75,85,512
Noida - 11,48,292 [35 sh.]

Noida 2nd week is 11,50,000 from 35 shows. Noida 1st week was 1,29,000 most likely 5 shows.
Looks like they increased Black screening from 1 show daily in the 1st week to 5 shows daily in the 2nd week.

Delhi-UP sold for 1.5 crore and already grossed double of that just from Delhi alone.

Still, trade is not admitting it a hit. How can they, after declaring it a flop just 12 days ago.

http://www.boxofficeindia.com/ site that in my opinion gives the best unbiased non-cofusing Boxoffice #s seems to have corrected Black's Indian BO collec tions upwards.

It's 6.8 cr for the first week and 5.15 cr for the 2nd week net gross. At this rate, watch out, Black will overtake Veer Zara's 4th week BO collections. May be even for week #3. (Flop Film??)

Also:
BOX OFFICE UPDATE-19th February 17.00 IST
Black has maintained rock steady collections in the metroes and even though collections at small centres are low they are steady in the second week compared to first week.The film has been sold at prices according to its business potential.The prices range from a 2.5-2.75 crore in Mumbai to 2 prints sent to Bihar for just the print cost(1.5 lakhs).