Rohit Shetty strikes hat-trick with ‘Golmaal 3′ this Diwali

NEW DELHI - Director Rohit Shetty’s third instalment in the “Golmaal” franchise came out with triple aces this Diwali with over 90 percent occupancy in its initial weekend. It has beaten Vipul Shah’s “Action Replayy”.

“‘Golmaal 3′ has done extremely well while ‘Action Replayy’ had a poor start and was only average over the weekend,” trade analyst Amod Mehra told IANS on phone from Mumbai.

Both movies opened on Diwali, Friday. While advance bookings for “Golmaal 3″ were too strong till Sunday, Akshay Kumar-Aishwarya Rai starrer period comedy “Action Replayy” picked up gradually after a dull start on the first day.

The trade reports say “Golmaal 3″ raked in around Rs.32 crore in the first three days, while “Action Replayy” earned only half of it - Rs.16.75 crore during the same period.

Most of the multiplexes are not so excited with the content of the movies, but at the same time they are happy with the business from “Golmaal 3″.

” ‘Golmaal 3′ has been appreciated a lot and the occupancy over the weekend was over 90 percent. While audiences are not really taking well to Akshay and Aishwarya’s period stint in ‘Action Replayy’. It has had an initial occupancy of only 60-70 percent,” Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (Cinemas) of Wave Cinemas told IANS.

“We’ve had 10-12 shows per property on an average for both the movies and considering that no big releases are coming out next Friday, ‘Golmaal 3′ should have an extended run. It does have a shelf life,” he added.

Jayendra Banerji, vice president (Operations) of Satyam Cineplexes, said: “The weekend was good as both the movies did good business and had an occupancy between 90-100 percent. ‘Golmaal 3′ was slightly better with 80 percent occupancy and good reviews from audiences while ‘Action Replayy’ had around 65-70 percent footfall.”

With an unprecedented buzz before their release, “Golmaal 3″ cashed in on the rapport of its previous two outings. While Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Shreyas Talpade, Tusshar Kapoor reprised their roles in part three, Kunal Khemu and Mithun Chakraborty came as new additions to the cast.

“Action Replayy”, on the other hand, saw Akshay and Aishwarya together as a couple for the first time, but failed to create a spark considering the initial audience reaction.

Srikant, a college student who went to watch the movie with his friends, says he had a rollicking time. “We just loved the movie. It is a ‘paisa vasool, time pass’ laugh riot,” he told IANS.

PVR Cinemas ran around eight to nine shows of both the movies on an average per property across Delhi and National Capital Region (NCR). A source from the multiplex chain said that “Golmaal 3″ did a good business, but the content is disappointing.

“The weekend was terrific. ‘Golmaal 3′ and ‘Action Replayy’ both did well. But the content of both the movies has not been appreciated that much. It was only due to the pre-release hype that these got a good footfall,” said the source.

Kanika Jain, an ardent movie fan, too complained about the content saying. “There is no content in ‘Golmaal 3′. It was pathetic. I walked out half way.”