Finally, Bell Bottom has been released. The much-awaited Akshay Kumar starrer saw theatrical release in various parts of India, yesterday on 19th of August. The movie has been a breath of fresh air for exhibitors, as well as for the film industry. Bell Bottom is the first big-ticket movie to release in the theatres after the Covid-19 pandemic shut down India for nearly 1 year and 6 months approximately. Hopes are extremely high with Bell Bottom and it seriously needs to do a very decent job, if not a superhit job to revive the box office once again.
Now as the movie has been released, theatrical analysts are eager to analyze how the movie will go and how the movie has been on the first day, and interestingly reports are already out. Bell Bottom, on the first day, has collected around Rs. 2.05- Rs. 2.75 crores on the first half of the day, reports were out that with the latter half of the day, the movie has easily touched the Rs. 3 crore mark. But, sadly it doesn’t meet the prediction of Rs. 5 crores which were set by analysts for the first-day release. Now, to make it clear, the Rs. 5 crores limit is already very low, and it was set after keeping everything in mind, regarding the current conditions and situations.
The highest sales were noticed in the Delhi and NCR regions, and the movie needs to have a good business in the Delhi and NCR regions since Maharashtra cinema halls and theatres are still shut. The sales are believed to go high in Chandigarh with night shows being started, and if that happens the same with Delhi and NCR regions in the coming weeks, it will be an exciting coming week for “Bell Bottom”, for sure. The Kolkata and Hyderabad regions have done quite an okay-ish sort of business. It has to be kept in mind that currently, Kolkata has the highest single screen shows for Bell Bottom and also has the best business when it comes to single screen business. Hyderabad has 100% occupancy allowed in theatres. Besides that, every other state and city is continuing with 50% occupancy in halls.
Rajasthan, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh have registered lower numbers as compared to movies that were released before the pandemic. The movie needs to do well especially in this belt to turn it into a blockbuster. Bell Bottom apparently has seen less business than that compared to “Roohi” and “Mumbai Saga”, both of which were released in March, but with 100% theatre occupancy.
Now, to revive the box office in at least some way, “Bell Bottom” needs to do extremely well during the weekends and in the coming week, which trade analysts believe will happen. The movie, if it stays up in the halls till the government lifts curfews and brings back 100% occupancy in the theatres, the movie is supposed to do a really good job and with the first reviews out, there’s hope that the coming days and weeks will bring more audience to the theatres.