Akshay Kumar's "The Shaukeens" and Hollywood sci-fi "Interstellar" dominated the box office in its opening weekend over Shah Rukh Khan's "Happy New Year" (HNY).
The musical heist drama, starring SRK and Deepika Padukone, collected around ₹5.17 crore in its third weekend; whereas "The Shaukeens" minted ₹18.52 crore and "Interstellar" collected ₹8.25 crore in its opening weekend, according to Bollywood Hungama.
"Happy New Year" was expected to perform better than the other two films as it features Shah Rukh along with Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah and Boman Irani.
Farah Khan's directorial, which received mixed reviews at the box office, enjoyed the first two weeks run at the box office as there was no competition.
But as it entered its third week, the earnings went down due to "The Shaukeens" and "Interstellar".
"The Shaukeens" is a comedy film, which is why several film-goers chose Akshay's film over Shah Rukh's. Also, Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" worked well at the box office due to positive reviews, but "HNY" magic seems to have faded away.
"The Shaukeens" remained the first choice of the movie-goers last weekend, whereas "Interstellar" became the second and "Happy New Year" slipped to the third position.
"Interstellar was the pick of the weeIt overshadowed everything else. In fact, other Hollywood releases from last week also have been a treat for the audience," Vishal Anand, Head-Operations at Fun Cinemas, told Mid-Day.
Meanwhile, after the weekend, "The Shaukeens" and "Interstellar" are expected to lead the box office during the weekdays as well.
