Box office: 'Suicide Squad' earns more than 4 Bollywood releases in opening weekend

Budhia Singh - Born To Run

Much like a distress sale, four small-budget films were introduced to moviegoers last Friday, ahead of the big Independence Day contest between Akshay Kumar-starrer Rustom and Hrithik Roshan's Mohenjo Daro. And the result was on expected lines - none could rake in the moolah. In fact, they struggled to post a combined total of Rs 5 crore by the end of the first weekend, say trade sources.

Manoj Bajpayee and Mayur Patole in Budhia Singh - Born To Run

Budhia Singh - Born to Run starring Manoj Bajpayee witnessed the best opening at Rs 23 lakh on day one, thanks to the word-of-mouth buzz. By the end of its first weekend, the bio-drama rang up nearly Rs 1.25 crore. The rest - The Legend Of Michael Mishra (Rs 50 lakh), Fever (Rs 75 lakh) and Hai Apna Dil Toh Awara (figures unavailable) - failed to excite the audience.

Hollywood release Suicide Squad starring Will Smith and Margot Robbie collected Rs 9.75 crore.

Trade expert Amod Mehra says, "The problem with small budget films is that they seldom manage to create awareness due to budget constraints. So, even if critics praise a film, the audience shies away from it since they are not even aware that it has released - like the sincerely made Budhia Singh - Born to Run. It earned positive reviews, but the collections were not good enough for it to be declared ‘safe'. The other three releases were plain disasters."

In such a scenario, cinephiles made a beeline for the previous week's release, Dishoom, which grossed Rs 110 crore worldwide in 10 days. Its domestic business stands at Rs 63.69 crore. "Meanwhile, Sultan is just Rs 26 lakh away from the magical Rs 300-crore mark. Last weekend fetched the Salman Khan-starrer nearly Rs 1.5 crore," says trade guru Taran Adarsh.