Not the Eid Film Audiences Wanted
BMCM was tipped to be a chip off Bhai’s block, with its machismo, the flamboyant drama of Zafar’s directorial style, and the dudebro humour between the two leading men. The size, the scale, the mass appeal — it was all there in BMCM. The only competition was Maidaan, a sports drama starring Ajay Devgn and directed by Amit Sharma. “I actually thought BMCM had all the elements. They just didn’t come together in the way that they should have to be able to do what it takes,” said film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi. “You only wish that on a big holiday like Eid with this sort of set-up, the movie fires and sets the box office blazing. That’s unfortunately not what happened.”
To the Hindi film industry’s shock, BMCM has had a disastrous run at the box office so far. According to industry tracker Sacnilk, BMCM recorded an opening day collection of Rs. 15.65 crore, and Maidaan made Rs. 2.6 crore. The numbers would nosedive over the weekend. On the Monday after Eid, BMCM had only the slimmest advantage, with box office collections of approximately Rs. 2.45 crore compared to Maidaan’s Rs. 1.5 crore. Even those known for being forgiving couldn’t find a positive detail for BMCM. “Considering the huge budget on which it has been made, this film has proven to be a heavy loss for distributors and producers,” said trade analyst Komal Nahta in his review of the film.
In India, Eid has been synonymous with the release of blockbuster films, and the Khans usually got first dibs. After seeing the dismal response for BMCM, there’s been some speculation about whether the film should have picked a different release date. “Eid has largely always been a Khan holiday. To take out Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff on Eid made no sense from a release perspective. There is sort of a mismatch,” said a source close to the actors.
According to a source, “The advance bookings of both [BMCM and Maidaan] were terrible and very low for an Eid film. I mean, historically, even on a bad day, an Eid movie opened at Rs. 30 crore. Here, the combined total was not even Rs. 30 crore.” Then there was also the confusion around the date of the release. Everybody went with the assumption that the Eid holiday would be on April 10th. While Maidaan stuck to that date, the team of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan decided to shift the release to April 11th, the day that Eid was declared. The source added, “They could not even shift it fully. There was a paid preview for half of it, and half of it wasn’t a paid preview. You know, that just confuses and confounds people. You tell people that it’s April 10th, it comes out on the 11th, you’re doing a disservice to the audience.”