Hollywood film "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" turned out to be a tough competitor for John Abraham's "Rocky Handsome," as the former dominated the box office in India this week.
"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" remained the first choice of moviegoers this week, thus raking in approximately Rs 18 crore from 1,350 screens in India in four days. On the other hand, the John-starrer minted only Rs 16 crore from its domestic run.
"'Rocky Handsome' took a promising start with the paid previews on Thursday. However, on Friday, the collections were just average since the word-of-mouth wasn't good and the critics had panned it. The numbers took a nosedive over the weekend, especially on Sunday courtesy the India-Australia T20 match," trade analyst Amod Mehra told Mid-Day.
Both, "Batman v Superman" and "Rocky Handsome," received negative reviews from critics, but the former managed to shine at the box office due to the pre-release hype.
"'Batman v Superman', which released on over 1350 screens across India, weighed heavily on its prospects," Mehra added.
"Rocky Handsome" was a solo release, but due to negative reviews and not-so-strong word of mouth, the box office collection remained on the lower side.
"Despite being a solo Hindi release, 'Rocky Handsome' did not do as well as expected and failed to benefit from the holiday weekend," trade analyst Taran Adarsh said.
Surprisingly, Sonam Kapoor's "Neerja" and Fawad Khan, Sidharth Malhotra and Alia Bhatt starrer "Kapoor and Sons" continue to do well at the box office.
"The Karan Johar production maintained excellent hold at the box office despite three challenges — new releases, World T20 matches and exams. In fact, it has also proved to be 2016's highest week one grosser overseas so far with Rs 28 crore. By the end of the second weekend, it has minted Rs 35.65 crore," Adarsh added.
