Talaash Box Office: The answer lies within

TalaashA superstar’s film (Ghajini) becomes the first in the industry to net Rs 100 cr and sets a new benchmark at the box office. A year later his next release (3 Idiots) completely changes the rules of the game by collecting over 200 crores. What is more noteworthy a fact is that, till this point, no other actor in the industry has a 100 crore film. Quite unconventionally the actor has his next release after 3 years and thus the question of the hour develops: WHAT’S NEXT IN STORE – Another 200 crore film?

Yes, you guessed it right. We are talking about Aamir Khan and his current release TALAASH. With this write up we analyse the extreme reactions (both positive and negative) to Talaash and also its box office performance. The film has collected 46 crore and 67 crore nett over the first weekend and first week respectively. Looking at the drop it has shown over the weekdays and the dent that Khiladi 786 will make into its business from second week onwards, one may speculate that the lifetime business will be in the range of 90-95 crores.

For a film belonging to the suspense-drama genre, these are very good figures and more importantly there is nothing surprising about it either. Talaash was never expected to be record-breaking, and it was quite obvious before release that the film will completely rely on word-of-mouth publicity to cross 100 crores.

But, this is only one side of the coin. A section of the industry and the media has been speculating Talaash as Brand Aamir Khan’s comeback film after 3 Idiots as if Talaash was a born successor to 3 Idiots at the relay of ticket window. And that’s where we’ve gone wrong because it is such overhyped expectations that kill a film. It’s indeed facetious that trade pundits started predicting Talaash’s lifetime numbers to be above 150cr or 200cr as soon it was announced (forget about the first look). The release of Talaash’s trailer 10 months before its release only added fuel to this fire of anticipations.

The table below showcases what I’m trying to convey and how these vaunted prospects actually developed prior to the release of Talaash.

Last 3 films of Aamir Khan

Unfortunately, most of us are only interested in figures (rather records) without understanding the vitality of the last two columns in the above table. Frankly speaking, I don’t consider it correct to make comparisons between the above films because of the variance in genres. Superstars are god-worshipped in India but we must not overburden a good script with false outlooks.

Talaash’s performance at the ticket window also proves that every new film has its own capabilities and is disconnected with all previously released films in terms of trade. Yes, a Super Hit success increases the prospects of the star’s next release but only to an extent. In terms of acceptance, Talaash has done very well but its WOM is certainly below Barfi! & Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, two films in the recent past, which had a similar target audience. Thus, the drops will be more. At the end of the day, irrespective of the genre, star, promotions there is one Golden Rule that stays true always: “Audience acceptance is directly propotional to the moolah a movie rakes in at the box office”

Archit Mishra tweets @architmishra_06

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60 Comments

  • still for me it is the best movie of 2012 hands down. Barfi was copied from so many movies and it cant be compared to Talaash. Most sensible movie of 2012 ‘Talaash’

  • Audience acceptance has nothing to do with moolah today Holidays are directly linked to good opening & moolah…On non holidays that is regular Friday if u release a movie then it wont cross 120 crores (khiladi 786 & talaash) only rowday was exception but then it had no competition.

  • @ niks…btw we must not insult the ship “titanic” by comparing it with buddha srk’s career…..it was a much better ship..p:)

  • @vinay Salman is a phenomena…he right now is wat Big B was in 80’s…One man army…though Aamir is Aamir…both are legends!

  • as far as I am concerened talaash is the best movie of the year. i guess delaying it and less promotion is the reason for its lower collection. on the other look at how JTHJ got promoted and hype and than look at the script but more importantly look at the collection

  • will kareena kapoor still be the #1 actress after this? by the way indicine, BOI predicts 85 crore lifetime. aamir himself didn`t do any heavy promotion. lets not forget that all the other super stars had their releases on a holiday week end. finally i still don`t get why the indian cine goers are the way they are. i don`t get how movies like bodyguard and ready can collect the numbers they did.

  • Guys let’s be honest, though talaash is a very good movie, it definitely is not the best movie of this year and for me OMG should be the best movie of this year and ofcourse jthj the worst crap rubbish nonsense sh’it of this century.

  • Inspite of below-the-expected collections, talaash is still a novel& one of its kind movie but most importantly it is the most dignified,graceful and exquisite movie of this year unlike the crappiest jthj which was a total opposite and for this i really salute the mr.perfect and very proud to be his fan. Just waiting for dhoom 3 to rip all the boxoffice records.

  • @Nihal dont be disappointed Aamir the Magician will make you happy with Dhoom 3 and will open a new club ‘300 crore ‘ in India club.Make sure you keep yourself free on dec 25th 2013 !

  • Aamir disappointment gives 85 cores (expected though will be higher bcoz of khiladi 786 debacle) and 3rd biggest overseas hit….whereas srk’s hit or so called hit MNIK is 72 crores haha…power of Aamir!

  • ha ha ha. i laugh at the way that every trade site is trying to defend the movie. it hardly matters if it is a suspense or a drama or a comedy or even a social film. if the film is good it will be loved by everyone and if the movie is loved by everyone then no world can stop it from performing at the box office. even aamir has accepted that the movie is not good. even if you defend aamir he does not care for your site. a person like aamir knows that if a movie is good then it will perform at the box office. there is no point defending a useless movie when every one knows that it was a disaster.

  • @don 85 crore and disaster i think your brain is a disaster:P its blockbuster overseas with a bufget of 40 crores how on earth can it be termed a disaster so brother we are 1 year ahead its not about Ra.one

  • @Noi with much hype and year long publicity and so many screens and a diwali release so yes you can say then also 115 crores so you yourself is admitting srk has no power now…

  • The reason i had chosen MNik of over srk’s biggest dud Ra.One bcoz MNIK was a little bit hatke kind of stuff falling under the same genre of Talaash. MNIK was not an outright masala kind of film

  • u guys should accept the fact that talaash was not a good film. if it was a good film then it would have done good business. whatever the genre is a good film is a good film. these critics are like this only. it was obvious that critics had to give nice rating to aamir starrer. but what matters is the audience. if a movie like raaz can be appreciated by the public then so can a movie like talaash. talaash was a horror movie and less thriller/suspense whatever u call it. basically i mean to say is that aamir too can go wrong in choosing scripts. if the script of his forthcoming movies are not up to the mark then they will also go the talaash way. the same goes for every actor. every star has his days. today it is salman khan, the father of everyone, yesterday it was aamir, before it was sharukh, tomorrow there will be a ranbir. but the fact is that a bad film will always be a bad film irrespective of its genre.

  • @ghajini how on earth can a movie make 75 crores in 10 days if it is bad?? plz explain…how is it doing so well overseas? plz explain… the script was awesome the movie itself was awesome. You dont need to earn 200 crore everytime to let others know that your movie is the greatest of all. Oye lucky Lucky oye , Dev D never crossed 100 crores so are they bad? Rab ne bana di jodi with similar numbers was said to be a blockbuster so why has talaash failed at bo?

  • truth is truth. u can never hide from it. u should accept it. only salman is the king. he is d daddy of aamir. even salman khans movies are very bad but u know how much money it makes. it is called star power. dabanng will rape the record of 3 idiots. today aamir is known for the highest grossing movie. but soon that will be history. what will he do now? he is in a midlife crisis. ha ha ha. and you all know the trp of his show satyamave jayete. if his forthcoming movies has the same negativity then you know wheere is d ship named aamir going.. enjoy have a good day guys. learn to digest the truth or take some hajmola.

  • @ghajiniAamir is nt going through any crisis . Crisis = Salman Khan name… Aamir has dhoom 3 and PK in his kitty and we all know What they are capable of doing at Box Office. Rajkumar hirani movie hehe Salman can only dream of working with such directors. coming dec 2013 we will c where all records stand who breaks what

  • one thing i want to add that one cnt say that masala movie is surety of success look at k786 not accepted at all and look at the masala movie by salman accepted internationaly overseas + multiplexes and single screens of india
    can sum up this whole discussion that salman is the true king of bollywood after 2008

  • Aamir is the best actor today. For me Talaash is the best movie this year. I bet if the movie had raunchy item numbers with Aamir flaunting a six pack & fighting a hundred goons & driving fancy cars…people would have loved the same story. Indian audience should grow up. Aamir is not a Salman, Srk or Akshay. Aamir has always been different right from he’s first movie QSQT with he’s lover boy image. He experimented new scripts & sometimes failed…but he’s acting surpasses everyone. Talaash is a beautiful movie. It will be a cult classic.

  • @niks ghajini is some idiot srk fans trying to wage fight between salman and aamir fans….salman fans are frineds with aamir fans….

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