Akshay Kumar has been ruling the box office with five back-to-back movies crossing Rs100 crore mark at the domestic market in the recent past. However, the actor's successful streak of the 'centuries' at the box office is all likely to be broken as his latest release PadMan may just fall short of making it to the Rs100cr club.
The movie PadMan was much hyped and fans were eagerly waiting for its release after the trailer of the film had received a positive response from the viewers. Based on the life of Arunachalam Muruganantham, who invented the machine for creating low-cost sanitary pads, PadMan had a decent start at the box office but failed to maintain the momentum at the commercial circuits.
After collecting Rs 40 crore at the Indian box office over its first weekend, the film's business witnessed a drastic drop in the following days. The second-weekend collection remained as low as around Rs 7 crore, taking its 10 days' total domestic earnings to Rs 71.90 crore.
This sudden dip in the business of PadMan has made it certain that the film will not cross Rs100 crore mark, thus ending the dream of six back-to-back movies in the coveted club.
"#PadMan declined considerably in Weekend 2... Entry into the ₹ 100 cr Club is ruled out, as per current trending... [Week 2] Fri 2.10 cr, Sat 3.15 cr, Sun 3.78 cr. Total: ₹ 71.90 cr. India biz. [sic]," trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted.
#PadMan declined considerably in Weekend 2... Entry into the ₹ 100 cr Club is ruled out, as per current trending... [Week 2] Fri 2.10 cr, Sat 3.15 cr, Sun 3.78 cr. Total: ₹ 71.90 cr. India biz.
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) February 19, 2018
While its collection has already slowed down to a great extent over the second weekend, PadMan's business is likely to witness a further dip in the weekdays. One of the reasons for PadMan's below-par performance is apparently Padmaavat's strong hold at the box office even on its fourth week.
Before PadMan, Akshay's last five movies that crossed the milestone are Airlift, Housefull 3, Rustom, Jolly LLB 2 and Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.
Like most other recent films of the Khiladi actor, PadMan was also vehemently promoted, and had considerable hype around it. Apart from Akshay, Sonam Kapoor, who appeared on the screen after a long gap, also featured in the film along with Radhika Apte. However, even the two actress' appearance also failed to attract the expected footfalls in the theatres.
Although, PadMan failed to fetch the expected box office numbers and will not cross the 100 crore mark (considering the current trend), the film turned out to be a hit as it has been made on a limited budget.