Bollywood movie "Happy Ending", starring Saif Ali Khan, Govinda and Ileana D'Cruz in the lead, has opened to an average response at the Indian box office and seems to have been slightly affected by three other releases.
"Happy Ending" is one of the most-hyped romantic comedy films of 2014. Its promos soared viewers' curiosity and its makers too promoted the film on a large scale. Trade experts in B-Town had predicted that the movie would debut with fantastic response and beat the first day collection of "Cocktail", which is the biggest opener for Saif until now.
Though advance booking option for the film opened much before its release, "Happy Ending" registered mediocre amount of booking on its opening day. Released in 2000+ screens in the domestic market, the movie recorded average occupancy during morning shows. When compared to single screens, the film had better amount of footfalls in multiplexes in urban centres.
Rohit Jaiswal, owner of RJ Films, Exhibitor and distributor from Kolkata explained that the films opening is a big disappointment. "#happyending is good at sme parts, bt overall dissapoints, weak direction by raj&dk, Govinda & saif both are ok bt nt exclnt.." The exhibitor added, "Multipx aprx 20%, single scrns 12% avg ocuupancy fr #happyending, sala ye november mahina rula dega humlogo ko no sale, all exibitrs in loss," he tweeted.
"Happy Ending" has garnered mixed response from the viewers, who watched the first show of the movie. Most of the audiences have expressed positive feelings about the film. Trade experts believe that word of mouth is likely to take its business upwards in the afternoon and evening shows.
""Happy Ending" is certainly targeted mainly at multiplexes and thus Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Delhi regions are expected to soar as the film's positive buzz floats around. The mass belts have been low so far and considering the film stars Saif Ali Khan who is very much a commercial film actor, the occupancy looks low," predicts Koimoi.
Having registered 75 to 80% occupancy, Saif's biggest opener "Cocktail" had collected ₹10.75 crore nett at the domestic box office on its opening day. However, it remains to be seen whether "Happy Ending" would show big jump in the later shows and become the biggest opener for the actor.
