HOLIDAY Soon to Enter 100 Crore Club

Rowdy Rathore grossed 130+ crores at the Box Office. But that was in 2012. After that a series of Hits, Semi-Hits, Averages and Flops, Akshay’s film is yet to re-enter the coveted 100 crore club. But with Holiday (2014) making all kinds of right noises, his dream to finally taste the 100 figure is finally coming true. Lets analyse its Box Office performance…

Holiday made an opening day income of 12 crores with the income multiplying to 42 crores by the draw of its first weekend and the first week total approaching 70 crores almost. Surprisingly, Holiday emerged as the leader collecting a total of Rs. 19.37 crores over its second weekend (15^th June), thus trouncing the previous leader 2 States that featured Arjun Kapoor and Alia Bhatt and collected Rs. 15.53 crores.

Taran Adarsh, Film Critic and Trade Analyst, tweeted, The 10-day collections of "Holiday" stand at ₹88.05 crore. "#Holiday [Week 2; revised figures] Fri 4.36 cr, Sat 6.31 cr, Sun 8.70 cr. Grand total: ₹ 88.05 cr nett. India biz. Excellent!,"

Though both Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaarra! and BOSS failed dismally at the box office, Akshay’s hold over his audiences remained unfazed. OUATIMD suffered primarily due to the clash with Chennai Express. It was a huge shocker when the film made 65 crores only at the box office. Probably it was the failure of OUATIMD that affected Boss as well. It was an above average film that flopped with a lifetime earning of merely 54 crores.

With Holiday still running in theatres, and the multi-starrer Humshakals releasing this Friday, one wonders whether the film will be able to last another weekend in the theatres and cross the century mark. Lets analyze Akshay’s past Box Office performance…

Akshay Kumar is the only actor who made it on his own, without the help of any ‘godfather’. It’s worth mentioning that except Akshay, all the top stars of today started  their careers with superhits, winning Filmfare Award for Best Male Debutant each – Aamir Khan (Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak – 1988); Salman Khan (Maine Pyar Kiya – 1989); Ajay Devgn (Phool Aur Kaante – 1991); Shahrukh Khan (Deewana – 1992); Hrithik Roshan (Kaho Na Pyaar Hai – 2000).

His debut film Saugandh (1991) was a box office failure and he had to wait till his 4th film to get his first success in Khiladi (1992). To earn the Superstar tag which he enjoys today, he had to climb up the ladder of 16 successive flops until he rediscovered himself with Jaanwar (1999) This film is considered to be his comeback film and is one of the biggest hits in Bihar of those times. Although, this was a high point in his career, it won’t be wrong to term 2007 as the year of his rebirth at the box office. He is not a star with the best acting skills, but he is definitely the one who is complete and versatile. For him, Action and Comedy are his forte and he’s league ahead of his competitors in these genres.

Akshay Kumar is the 2nd actor after Rajendra Kumar to have given 4 successive Hits in the same year (2007: Namastey London; Heyy Babyy; Bhool Bhulaiya; Welcome). He still holds this record. He is also the only superstar to risk his stardom 3-4 times in a year. While at times he got paid off for this courageous attitude (2007 and 2012), mostly large number of releases have adversely impacted his success rate.

It’s also worth mentioning that he hasn’t got any extended weekend releases (National Holidays) in his entire career and that’s what makes the difference today when it comes to making/breaking records. Anyone who has even a slight idea about box office can never doubt Akshay’s star power to generate excellent openings and pre release buzz. During 2008-2010, even his average films got bumper openings. It is a fact that has to be accepted that 2011 saw lukewarm openings for his films but quite unexpectedly he came back with a bang making Rowdy Rathore and Housefull 2 amongst the Biggest non-holiday Openers of all time.

Akshay’s box office potential may largely be attributed to his huge fan following. And the major reason behind this loyal fan backing is his self-made-man image with no filmy background which appeals radically to the common man. His journey from being a waiter in Bangkok to becoming the Highest Paid Actor is really an inspiration for all youngsters.

With Holiday reviving Akshay’s star power, benefiting massively from it will be his upcoming films It’s Entertainment and Gabbar. For now Holiday is almost a winner with 100 crore at bay for it.