“Maidaan”, the sports biopic on the life of the Indian football coach Syed Abdul Rahim, have been going strong in theatres for a week now. A line from the review could have been along the following lines: “Even though people gave positive reviews for this particular movie, its box office performance after the first six days remained in the bottom range, continuing a disappointing trend this year.” The box office industry watchers speculate that the movie, an Ajay Devgn starrer, earned around Rs. 1.65 crore, and its total nett collection now includes Rs. 25.15 crore. The movie directed by Amit Sharma of “Badhaai Ho” fame opened slowly on Eid with a collection of Rs 2.6 crore.
Over the weekend, “Maidaan” saw a slight uptick, garnering Rs 5.75 crore on Saturday and Rs 6.4 crore on Sunday. However, its collections dipped significantly on Monday, plummeting to Rs 1.5 crore. Despite being produced with a reported budget of Rs 250 crore, the film grappled with prolonged delays due to pandemic-related disruptions and extensive post-production work.
As the flick producers intended to boost the revenue, they introduced an offer of Rs. 150 only in a couple of specific theatres. Though it didn’t significantly improve its box office figures, this initiative laid a foundation for the film to gain a loyal audience in the future. On the sixth day, the cinema “Maidaan” scored 11.47 per cent in overall viewers rate. In Mumbai, which has 444 screenings, it saw an occupancy rate of 16.6%, and in Delhi NCR, which has 589 screenings, the occupancy rate was 11.13%. Kolkata is where the movie is set up, and the 179 screenings show that the attendance percentage is 12.75 percent.
“Maidaan,” who faced box office competition from the “Bade Miyan Chote Miyan” movie duo – Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff – failed to match gripping expectations for a fight between both movies. Consequentially, they were seen as major failures of the year. Despite being a box office success, the movie was mostly rated with thumbs-downs, unlike the case with A R Murugadoss’ action drama, which was panned by critics.
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