http://www.indiafm.com/boxoffice/overseas/24feb05.shtml

U.S.A. BOX-OFFICE
Weekend: February 18 - 21, 2005 [4-day weekend]

* BLACK [last weekend: No. 47, this weekend: No. 41]: In its third weekend, the film has collected $ 123,564 on 39 screens, with the per screen average working out to $ 3,168. The total so far has been $ 451,475 [approx. Rs. 1.97 crores].

Box-office Report

(The verdict is based on all-India collections and indicates the overall status from the date of release)

Chehraa
Director: Saurabh Shukla
Cast: Dino Morea, Bipasha Basu, Preeti Jhangiani
Plus Points: None
Weak Points: Everything
Box-Office verdict: Disaster

Jurm
Director: Vikram Bhatt
Cast: Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta, Milind Soman, Gul Panag
Plus Points: None, barring a somewhat sincere act by Gul Panag
Weak Points: Miserable direction, production design, performances and music
Box-Office verdict: Flop

Sheesha - Some Mirrors Lie
Director: Ashu Trikha
Cast: Neha Dhupia, Sonu Sood
Plus Points: Neha - the bold
Weak Points: Neha - the non-actress
Box-Office verdict: Flop

Chaahat - Ek Nasha
Director: Jai Prakash
Cast: Aryan Vaid, Manisha Koirala, Preei Jhangiani
Plus Points: Not Available
Weak Points: Tacky music, performances, script and execution
Box-Office verdict: Flop

Black
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee, Nandana Sen, Shernaz Patel, Ayesha Kapur
Plus Points: Unparalleled performances, direction and cinematography
Weak Points: sluggish, emotionally hollow, arty
Box-Office verdict: Average (Strictly)

Shabd
Director: Leena Bajaj
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Aishwarya Rai and Zayed Khan
Plus Points: Excellent cinematography, interesting storyline
Weak Points: Poor performances and screenplay
Box-Office verdict: Flop

Blackmail
Director: Anil Devgan
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Suniel Shetty, Priyanka Chopra, Dia Mirza
Plus Points: None Whatsoever!
Weak Points: Weak performances, Music, Direction, Screenplay
Box-Office verdict: Flop

Page 3
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Tara Sharma, Bikram Saluja, Sandhya Mridul and Others.
Plus Points: Unique Concept, Strong Ensemble Cast
Weak Points: Weak music and production values, hyperbolic and exaggerated moments.
Box-Office verdict: Average (hit in Mumbai and Delhi multiplexes)

Kisna
Director: Subhash Ghai
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Isha Sharvani, Antonio Bernath
Plus Points: Fabulous cinematography, lilting music, a fantastic performance by Antonio Bernath
Weak Points: Weak Storytelling, Slow, an unconvincing performance by Vivek
Box-Office verdict: Flop

Insan
Director: K.Subhaash
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Tusshar Kapoor, Rahul Dev, Esha Deol, Lara Dutta and Laila
Plus Points: Strong action sequences, Akshay Kumar's serious-comic act and Rahul Dev's menacing look
Weak Points: Tacky marketing, poor music and miserable direction
Box-Office verdict: Flop


Flood of Well Deserved Flops!

Wow, they changed the BO status from flop to "strictly Average".
Next step; change from "strictly average" to "likely Hit" and later to ----??

I wish so too!

Though I still think this film is Overrated , I am happy to see these numbers. A good/strong word-of-mouth always carries a film over.

Now, it's A1 (Hit; 75% to 125% return) in Mumbai, A (Semi Hit) in Mysore and Bengal.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/
BOX OFFICE UPDATE-26th February 16.00 IST

Black continues its great business in the big cities.The film looks set to do A1(Hit) business in Mumbai and A(Semi Hit) business in West Bengal and Mysore.

I actually think this film is getting it's dues. Which is quite rare for such an unaccustomed film. But I would wholeheartedly agree that this film is "overrated" with those that claim Black to be a cinematic masterpiece.

Rediff calls it a HIT now.

http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2005/mar/01box.htm
March 1, 2005
Black

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukerji, Ayesha Kapur.
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Excellent performances, heart-warming story.

Too dramatic, too loud, tries too hard to tug at emotions.

Number of weeks: 3.
BO Verdict: Hit.

It brings to my mind the example of what word-of-mouth can do to films SHANKARABHARANAM was released in Mumbai's Minerva in only weekend morning shows(in the early eighties I think), and yet it ran to packed houses for a reasonable amount of time. Mind you there was no awareness of this movie by way of advertisements and such to the general public. It had been a big hit in the South and the distributors brought it to Mumbai, where people were made aware only by others who had watched it.

I think BLACK's phenomenon is by and large similar, which is a happy occurrence for Indian cinema in general. In this case both the critics and the end viewer have liked the movie and that is working for it in terms of box office returns!

Black that was unanimously declared a Flop in the beginning, finally is being hailed as a "Box Office Success" by almost every one now.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... 583627.cms
Bollywood soars to new heights

SUBHASH K JHA
Going by the box office success of 'Page 3' and 'Black', 2005 seems to be the year of soaring aspirations in filmdom.
[ 04:44:43 PM Thursday, March 03, 2005, IANS]


BTW, Black third week per screen average (India) was close to double of Veer Zara third week. Going by collections when 150 prints were screening, Total or per screen average of Black was 3.5 times of Veer Zara.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com
In 3rd week:
Black was showing with 150 prints @ 2.32 cr print average. (3rd week total = Rs 3.5 cr)
Veer Zara was showing with 394 prints @ 1.4 cr per print. (3rd week total = Rs 5.5 cr)

(Tomorrow we get the results of 4th week.)

--------------------------------
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2005/mar/04black.htm

Black shines overseas!

Arthur J Pais | March 04, 2005 13:39 IST
Just as the newest films by Subhash Ghai and Mani Ratnam stumbled on both sides of the Atlantic and exhibitors wondered if the magic that guaranteed them a hit abroad had vanished, Sanjay Leela Bhansali sprang a surprise.

His songless movie, Black, had opened to a mediocre $145,000 in North America on 45 screens and to similar numbers in Britain on 20 screens. The movie had been advertised well and had looked like a surefire winner.

The first weekend's gross looked like the film was going to meet a fate similar to that of Ghai's Kisna and Ratnam's Yuva.
But it bucked the negative trend, perhaps the only film in the last three or four years to do so.

Fuelled by word of mouth, it remained so steady that in four weeks, it grossed $560,000 in North America and $600,000 in Britain. Expect the film to earn a combined $1.2 million (** There seems to be an error here as the #s already add up to 1.2 million. Expected Total must be higher.). Of course, the final gross looks paltry combined to the $7 million plus Bhansali's Devdas earned in Britain and North America.
But given the recent box-office disappointments, Black did surprisingly well.

http://www.boxofficeindia.com/
(the site looks hacked, it's not April first, is it...)
(In case they removed it again. They showed Black with total of over 800000000 INR!)

Looks like a prank or someone hijacked their site. Black news in huge font 30.



http://www.boxofficeindia.com/2005gross.htm

Black
36,80,64,805 (Week #1)
25,16,96,542 (Week #2)
1,86,50,7654 (Week #3)
89,18,6753 (Week #4)

These #s are many times bigger than what they reported until a few days ago.

Take away #s in bold and readjust ,s and you get the real #s:

Week 1
6,80,64,805
Week 2
5,16,96,542
Week 3
1,86,50,765
Week 4
89,18,675

See the power of zero and a few misplaced comas.

Red faced Indianboxoffice site main page is totally blank now. Will be updated on Mar 12.

If you do click the above link, you can get the 2005 corrected #s (replace 2005 with 2004 2003 etc for other yrs).

My guess above turned out OK for week 1 & 2. Week 3 was around Rs 3.5 cr and the figure Rs 1,86,50,765 must be for week #4. Not sure about Rs 89,18,675. Week #5 should be more than this??

Still a profitable total of Rs 20 cr in 5 weeks .

Black still doing well in its 6th weekend in US, UK

http://www.indiafm.com/boxoffice/overseas/16mar05.shtml

OVERSEAS BOX-OFFICE (Weekend: March 11 - 13, 2005.)

By Taran Adarsh, March 16th, 2005 - 0930 hrs IST

U.S.A. BOX-OFFICE

BLACK [last weekend: No. 60, this weekend: No. 58]: In its sixth weekend, the film has collected $ 41,893 on 19 screens, with the per screen average working out to $ 2,204. Total: $ 643,094 [approx. Rs. 2.80 crores].

U.K. BOX-OFFICE

BLACK [last weekend: No. 28, this weekend: No. 27]: In its sixth weekend, the film has collected £ 21,121 on 14 screens, with the per screen average working out to £ 1,509. Total: £ 399,429 [approx. Rs. 3.32 crores].

Still bollywood is in distress rana!