What do you think?? After 6 days of it's release and conflicting Trade reoports, will Mangal Pandey be a hit, Average or Flop??
(Poll open for 7 days; till Aug 24??)

http://www.indiafm.com/trade/overseas_b ... index.html

'Mangal Pandey' Storms U.S.A., U.K., Australia

The verdict is loud and clear: MANGAL PANDEY - THE RISING has stormed the Overseas box-office charts and emerged a success story. The historical has had an extensive release -- 63 screens in U.S.A. and 73 screens in U.K. -- clearly indicating that the market for a keenly anticipated Hindi film has grown in Overseas over the years.

In the U.S., MANGAL PANDEY - THE RISING is off to an electrifying start, crossing the half-a-million mark in its first three days itself, which is huge. Its opening is not as aggressive in U.K., although the film has proved to be the biggest opener for Bollywood this year, besides featuring in the 'Top 10' charts this weekend.

To sum up, the first 3 days gross of MANGAL PANDEY - THE RISING from these two markets [U.S., U.K.] alone has crossed the magical figure of Rs. 4 crores.

U.S.A. BOX-OFFICE
MANGAL PANDEY - THE RISING has debuted at No. 21 position. In its opening weekend, the film has collected $ 531,018 [approx. Rs. 2.31 crores] on 63 screens, with the per screen average working out to $ 8,429.

Note:- In terms of screen averages, MANGAL PANDEY - THE RISING has overtaken the four Hollywood openers this weekend: FOUR BROTHERS [$ 8,360], THE SKELETON KEY [$ 5,795], DEUCE BIGALOW: EUROPEAN GIGOLO [$ 3,078] and THE GREAT RAID [$ 4,122]. The average is also better than the recently released biggies [this weekend] like THE DUKES OF HAZZARD [$ 3,437], WEDDING CRASHERS [$ 3,779], CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY [$ 2,243], FANTASTIC FOUR [$ 1,448] and WAR OF THE WORLDS [$ 1,610].

----------------------------------------------
U.S.A. BOX-OFFICE
MANGAL PANDEY - THE RISING has debuted at No. 21 position. In its opening weekend, the film has collected $ 531,018

They are happy with half a million dollars, where 20 to 50 million dollars is a norm in the opening weekend.
Even Bride & Prejudice did a lot better.
------------------------------------------------

http://www.boxofficeindia.com/
BOX OFFICE UPDATE-16th August 13.00 IST

Mangal Pandey has recorded excellent business over its first 4 days with each day having over 90% collections.According to the producers the film has notched up 2.20 crore in Mumbai city in the first 4 days.As the trade had expected collections came down this morning in most of the country though places like Mumbai and Pune have seen just the regular 30% drop as happens after the weekend.As the film is not likely to do well in the interiors like CPCI,Bihar and Rajasthan with collections cracking badly over the weekend,the films outcome depends on the big cities so the drop today is not alarming as movie going is a weekend affair in big cities unlike small centres where there is not much difference between weekend and weekday.The trend for successful films in big cities over the last year or so has been big drops after the weekend and a pick up on weekends and it remains to be seen if that is the case with Mangal Pandey.

The film should cross the 30 crore business of Aamir Khan's last major success Lagaan but in today's time with higher budgets and higher ticket prices a big film needs 40 crore+ to be a certain hit.

The first week record of Veer Zaara should be broken by Mangal Pandey as even if it falls badly from now it still has the advantage because Veer Zaara was unable to release in and around Bangalore in its first week.That already gives an approx 60 lakh lead to Mangal Pandey.

The film has been launched on around 430 prints showing on around 460 screens all over India.
-----------------------------------------------

And now the shocker:
http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2005/aug ... y~may~flop

Mangal Pandey may flop

Syed Firdaus Ashraf | August 17, 2005 16:59 IST

Aamir Khan's historical epic Mangal Pandey, which released on August 12, is on the verge of being declared a flop. The collections have been sliding downwards since Tuesday.

Mangal Pandey was released with over 600 prints worldwide and had a fabulous opening in city multiplexes. Unfortunately, it could not sustain and many theatres are running half-empty.

"The collections have dropped by 50 percent from Tuesday and I think the film is a looser," says film trade analyst Komal Nahta.

Costing Rs 500 million, Mangal Pandey is the most expensive film of 2005.

"The subject of the film was not right to click at the box office," says Vinod Mirani, editor, Box Office. "Traditionally, historical films have not worked. Another problem was that the film could not generate patriotic feelings among viewers."

Critics felt Mangal Pandey's music and dialogues were poor. Besides, the first half dragged and youngsters could not relate to the 1857 uprising against the Britishers.

"In cities like Rajkot, Jabalpur and the interiors of Uttar Pradesh, the collection was not more than 40 percent on the day it released. Today's youth are just not interested in such a subject," opined Mirani.

"If the film is made at Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million), the distributor could lose upto Rs 20 crores (Rs 200 million)," says a trade analyst who does not wish to be named.

However, producer Bobby Bedi claims Mangal Pandey is doing well. He expects sales to go down by 20 percent on weekdays but is hopeful as there is another long weekend coming up, thanks to Raksha Bandhan.

"I have already recovered my cost and now I will rake in some profit as well," Bedi says..

Hit or Flop most of us are going to see it right

WOW look at the current stand

Predict Mangal Pandey Box Office Verdict
Hit 33% [ 1 ]
Average 33% [ 1 ]
Flop 33% [ 1 ]

Well, rana!! The force behind the film is AAMIR!!

I was not optimistic re Ketan Mehta to handle that kinda canvas competently! Secondally, including Kisna writer as the main writer/screen play, gave me goose bumps! Kisna is one of the worst written/directed period film.

Movie's comparison is Huge, e.g to LAGAAN!

I would love to see a better screen play writer!

Music wise! It might not be Rehman's Best! But I dont think there is any one (Anu, NS, Reshmiya) etc around to do better, so whatever Rehman did still would be the best out there for this kinda film.

These days, films dont become HIT because of quality, but all STINKS become hit by hype! So, MP might get benifitted too! possibly!

IMHO! YRF did not treat music release favourably to that calibre film! Look at VZ release CD quality, amount of Music, Booklet etc!
MP is release like T series film!

I was going to ask for people's opinions here re: whether Mangal Pandey is worth going to the theaters to watch. But I'm not going to bother. I'm going to go watch it with my mom tonight.

Reason I'm not going to watch: you people actually liked that tripe called "Lagaan"!! yet ya'll nitpick at seriously good movies

Lagaan is what i call a movie....I donno about you.

I call it a bad/overrated movie

Mangal Pandey, Hit or Flop??

Only 4 of 15 zulmies predict it a Flop. Well, for a Rs 50 crore film, there is almost no activity, in the first week, in any of Mangal Pandey threads on zulm. This shows how much/ little interest is there. Based on this, I say, Flop. Based on good advance booking, inflated ticket prices, great # of shows before word of mouth spreads, it may come close to recovering its cost, but not recover it??

Producer said if it runs till long week-end then he made his money. Lets see. I wish they shouldnt loose money because we need somone to work on such project. On the otherhand I completely disagree with the 300 cr mahabharat movie. Do htey know how many 0s follow after 3 to make it 300 cr.

I am seeing it tommrow .. not very excited by all the -ve vibes i am hearing ..., eitherways the tickets is booked and i will go with an open mind. Stay tuned folks ...

I have got reviews from ppl who come to my retail store and all of them liked the movie. The only drawback seems to be the songs.

I think youth is not appreciating it well, as it is no flossy candy, dating film.

They think it is too lame for being patriotic films and dialogues were not powerful! and there was no light moments/no comedy

Mangal Pandey is reported to be a 50 cr film. So, must have costed Indian distributors abot Rs 30 cr. As per Boxofficeindia, its first week net gross is a record breaker over Rs 17.3 crore (more than Veer Zara).
as per Boxofficemojo First week US gross is $600,000 of which $ 530,000 was over the weekend. Second weekend saw a 65% drop to $ 185,000. If Indian collections too fall by 65% or even by 45%, no way, it can accumulate Rs 50 crore net gross (Distributor share is aprox 60-70% of net gross) needed to break even?? Let's see how it performs in the second week.
-------------------------

Same collections but lower production budget and the film would have been Hit.

---------------------------

Well, Hit or Flop, Good or Bad, this film is screening in the best theatre in Ottawa that is THX certified. So, a MUST SEE for me, my family and friends.

http://www.boxofficeindia.com/

BOX OFFICE UPDATE-27th August 14.00 IST

Mangal Pandey falls 60% in second week but is a an earner due to excellent first week.The film cost YRF around 16 crore in India and they will get a return of around 19 crore from Indian theatres making it a commission earner for them.The film is unlikely to earn any overflow for the producers. The producers should recover their 32 crore investment after the sale of DVD/ Satellite rights.



Mangal Pandey is the fourth most expensive hindi film in history after Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham(40 crore),Devdas(38 crore) and The Hero(35 crore).Mangal Pandey,Devdas and The Hero have also seen the highest pay cheques for the main leads with Aamir Khan getting 6 crore for Mangal Pandey and Shahrukh Khan and Sunny Deol getting 5 crore for Devdas and The Hero respectively.

Initially, they were calling it a 50 crore film. Now they say it's 32 crore.

A 60% drop in the second week implies no hit.

Even if it comes out Average! It is YRF ki Kismat, Aamir's pull and Hyppola! Till buble is burst!

It is a DISGRACE for Aamir Khan to represent this kinda product on the name of Nationality, Quality! etc!