It has been around eight months since a reasonable flow of releases started with Sooryavanshi and the box office still continues to struggle for collections. There have been some huge winners like The Kashmir Files, RRR (hindi), KGF (Hindi) and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 but generally collections are not coming.

This is not because the audience is not coming but because the content is stale and coming two years too late when the demand from the audience is different now compared to 2019. Also the box office itself takes a slightly different shape with certain markets needing to do well to get overall numbers while the content from 2019 is for markets which were running the show then. 

It is also a fact that the that most of the films which have not done well from Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui to Jersey to Runway to Anek to Samrat Prithviraj would have done far better numbers in 2019. This is just naming a few and it would be a similar case for the others as well. On the other side the winners like KGF 2, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, etc would not have done the business they have done now in 2019 as now competition is only a film which works and nothing much works so the ones which do work continue to run and run and hold better in time.

This struggle will continue for sometime as most of the content coming is what is called Saturday content in that it requires that big jump on Saturday where you recover on Saturday to a good level from a not so good start. It did happen before when 6 went to 10 on Saturday and 4 went to 7 and some films would even double up or near but those days look long gone now and the need of the hour are Friday films as the box office has changed shape.

The films that have done well have all opened well and been given a chance and then the regular weekend growth has come. The Kashmir Files is an abberation and a rare case and its box office got a push in many different ways. It can be said Gangubai Kathiawadi worked in the way that films used to in 2019 and picked up but eventually it got a 9.50 crore day first which may not be a good start for the budget but its a good number for a solo Alia Bhatt starrer and a heroine orientated subject. Eventually this film only jumped 30% on Saturday so when the growth is not like before the first day becomes of utmost importance today.

Basically that shift has to be made to make films which have more of a chance to bring that first day audience in. This is not to say that these films will work as no one really knows what is going to work even though the the industry and trade likes to believe they know. But you have to give the film a chance and when it is not able to get an opening day up on the board it is basically pretty much over. Obviously you wait for the weekend as you never know but its unlikely to happen. In time the box office could change again and Saturday films could comeback again but the need of the hour are Friday films that get an audience on the first day. 

The better results will come when this shift is made to films that entice the audience to theatres on the first day and then it depends on the film. If you cant get the audience out then it will be an uphill battle unless the content is extraordinary and that does not happen often. Because of this the struggle will continue until the new batch of films come which are launched and cater more towards the mass and youth so that some sort of initial day response is there.