Shah Rukh Khan's Jab Harry Met Sejal (JHMS) got an average response on Day 1 and failed to see a big growth in its collection at the box office on Day 2 as well and director Imtiaz Ali's weak storytelling is responsible for this below-expected result.
Shah Rukh Khan could not make it big with his last three releases: Raees, Fan and Dilwale. He has pinned lots of hopes on Jab Harry Met Sejal and promoted it heavily. The film was expected to be one of the biggest openers and highest grosser of his career. In fact, the movie was also expected to bring back the fallen glory of Imtiaz Ali, who saw a setback with the failure of his last film Tamasha.
Read: JHMS Movie Review | Critics Verdict | Audience Response | Box office Reports
Released in 3,200 screens on August 3, Jab Harry Met Sejal, however, started on a good note in the morning shows on the first day but ended up receiving mixed reviews. The audiences and critics were happy with its rich production values and performances of Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma. But they were very disappointed with the poor narration of the director.
After watching Jab Harry Met Sejal, Bollywood film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted: "#OneWordReview... #JabHarryMetSejal: Unimpressive Good performances... Stunning locales... Bland and boring screenplay... Too many songs #JHMS: With SRK-Anushka, Imtiaz Ali could've hit the ball out of the park with a solid script. Sadly, he loses this golden opportunity.
Another noted Hindi film critic Joginder Tuteja tweeted: "#JabHarryMetSejal - What a disappointment. SRK is so spirited & Anushka is good. But, but and a big BUT - there is no soul in the film - 1 #JHMS - Storytelling fails like anything. Turns out to be a sad depiction of a tale that could inherently have been so romantic! Rating: **"
Sumit Kadel, an observer of the industry, wrote on his Twitter page: "#JabHarrymetSejal Imtiaz ali messed up the second half.. absolutely no emotion.. very weak screenplay.. il go with 2* out of 5*.. 2/5 There is no punjab. No background ground story of harry in the film.. very bad story & screenplay ..Srk fans will be disappointed too."
The usual trend in the industry is that a movie will have less number of footfalls in the first show on the opening day. After seeing the response, most of the film-goers prefer to watch it in the later shows, especially in the evening. But the bad response to Ali's week storytelling spoiled the prospects as Jab Harry Met Sejal failed to see it big in the afternoon and evening shows on the first day.
Shah Rukh Khan's Dilwale and Raees clashed with Bajirao Mastani and Kaabil, respectively, but they had yet managed to collect Rs 21 crore and Rs 20.42 crore, respectively, at the Indian box office on their respective opening days. Since Jab Harry Met Sejal was a solo release, trade experts predicted it to collect over Rs 20 crore on its opening day.
But Jab Harry Met Sejal shocked many in the film industry, by collecting only Rs 15.25 crore at the domestic box office on the first day. The bad response worsened its business on the second day. Rohit Jaiswal, another observer, tweeted: "#JabHarryMetSejal Falls BADLY on DAY 2.... Clear REJECTION by GENUINE CINEMA LOVERS ACROSS INDIA.. @iamsrk @AnushkaSharma @RedChilliesEnt."
As per early trends, Jab Harry Met Sejal should see some change in luck on Sunday, but it is not going to help the movie. Trade experts predict that its collection would be reduced to single digit during the weekdays. The film will not be able to cross Rs 100 crore mark in the domestic market in the first week.
Jab Harry Met Sejal is expected to face even a tougher situation in its second week. Besides Bollywood, other regional film industries are also gearing up to release a host of big-ticket films in the next week to cash in on Independence Day holiday. They will sure make the Shah Rukh Khan starrer struggle to cross Rs 100 crore mark in the domestic market in its second week.
Jab Harry Met Sejal has been made with a budget of Rs 62 crore and its producers have shelled out Rs 20 crore on its promotion and advertisement. Its total cost is Rs 82 crore. The movie has estimated to have earned Rs 125 crore from its theatrical rights, Rs 50 crore from its satellite rights and Rs 20 crore from its music rights.
Jab Harry Met Sejal is estimated to have fetched a total of Rs 195 crore to its producers, who have earned a huge table profit of Rs 113 crore. Now, the big question is: Will it be able to return the investments of its distributors? The answer is that the movie might find difficult accomplish so. It is likely to cause losses to its distributors and force the producers to compensate for them.
