My Box Office Predictions for Action Jackson

Many people talk about how Rohit Shetty is the one who made Ajay the star he is today. Sure, there is truth to that. Most of Ajay's 100 crore grossers (such as GOLMAAL 3, SINGHAM, BOL BACHCHAN, SINGHAM RETURNS) have been with Rohit Shetty. However, let's not forget that SON OF SARDAR, RAJNEETI, ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI, and other films are films that were successful without Rohit Shetty.

Ajay Devgan may be an actor who's film needs good buzz in order to get a good opening (the majority of Bollywood actors are the same and evidence of this are the recent disastrous openings of Saif Ali Khan's HAPPY ENDING and Emraan Hashmi's UNGLI). A film like TEZZ that had low buzz opened very poorly, but when there is buzz then he can definitely get a solid opening (HIMMATWALA is an example of this, as the film opened well even though it later went on to be a box office flop).

ACTION JACKSON has a lot going for it. Ajay Devgan is coming fresh off the bumper, 32 crore opening (released on a national holiday) of SINGHAM RETURNS, a film that went on to do 140 crores and was declared a Super Hit and is currently the fourth highest grosser of the year behind KICK, HAPPY NEW YEAR, and BANG BANG.

There is director Prabhu Deva, the man who knows exactly what works with the masses and gave a career renaissance to both Salman Khan and Shahid Kapoor with the box office success of both WANTED and R RAJKUMAR respectively. Prabhu Deva also gave Akshay Kumar the biggest grosser of his career with the Blockbuster ROWDY RATHORE.

There is Sonakshi Sinha who's last two films that she was in )HOLIDAY-A SOLDIER IS NEVER OFF DUTY and R RAJKUMAR) were both successful at the box office.

The theatrical trailer of ACTION JACKSON has gotten a tremendous response. The YouTube views for the trailer is 11,129,090 views at the moment, which is surely up there as one of the highest in recent times for a Bollywood film trailer! Ajay Devgan is looking cool in the trailer in his bare-bodied action scenes and that would also pull both men and women to the theatres.

Out of the songs though, Keeda seems to be the only one that has had a good impact on listeners.

The last few weeks have been very poor at the box office but given all the above factors that I have mentioned, ACTION JACKSON will definitely take a solid opening. It will obviously be unfair to compare the opening day collections to SINGHAM RETURNS as that released on a national holiday while this film doesn't. The opening day collection of ACTION JACKSON will be the highest for Ajay Devgan when it comes to his non-holiday openers. I feel that at least in some parts of India (more likely in the mass dominated areas), the opening day collection would be on par with Salman Khan's JAI HO, which was also a non-holiday opener and still has one of the best opening day collections of the year. After all, let's not forget the momentum that Ajay Devgan carries after the bumper 32 crore opening of SINGHAM RETURNS! The collections at mass dominated areas and single screens will be excellent on the opening day of ACTION JACKSON.

In terms of public WOM (Word of Mouth), the film will have a Mixed WOM. The masses will definitely enjoy the film, as it has a lot for them: Ajay Devgan and his bare-bodied action scenes, his dialogues, Sonakshi Sinha, the Keeda song, etc. However, there is not much for the classes here, and they will not appreciate the film as much. Multiplexes in bigger cities will see a decline in collections after the opening weekend, and a major release two weeks later (PK) will cause collections of ACTION JACKSON to drop even further when PK releases. At the mass dominated areas however, ACTION JACKSON will hold very well even after the opening weekend and will enjoy a strong run at the box office in these areas. Last year, when the big box office Blockbuster DHOOM 3 released, Prabhu Deva's R RAJKUMAR still managed to hold it's collections at some mass area and ACTION JACKSON can do the same when PK releases.

ACTION JACKSON may be missing the chartbusting songs of R RAJKUMAR, but given the fact that R RAJKUMAR did 66.1 crores lifetime (Bollywood Hungama's figures) with the combination of Prabhu Deva, Sonakshi Sinha, and Shahid Kapoor, then the combination of Prabhu Deva, Sonakshi Sinha, and Ajay Devgan (who is obviously a much bigger star than Shahid Kapoor) means that ACTION JACKSON will do lifetime collections of at least 75 crores. It may not be much more than 75 crores though, as the Mixed WOM and competition with PK will affect the film's lifetime collections. There has been a lot of news that the film has been sold to Eros (I believe it's been sold to Eros worldwide) for 95 crores (including satellite rights). Eros may suffer some losses as distributors as worldwide collections may not match up to what they were expecting and Overseas business wouldn't be great for this type of desi masala film anyway starring Ajay Devgan who is not as popular Overseas as he is in India. However, the film will likely make profits for the producers of the film as the budget doesn't seem to be too huge and the revenue generated from theatrical collections, selling the film to distributors, etc will ensure good results for the producers.

My Box Office Predictions for ACTION JACKSON:

Opening Day: 14 crores

Opening Weekend: 40+ crores

Lifetime Collections: 75 crores

Overall Box Office Verdict: Semi Hit

I honestly don't think so bro. Sajid Khan was making urban comedies then made a big mistake by making a desi action film that was a remake of an 80s' film. Prabhu Deva has always known the pulse of the masses though.

As I said, if R Rajkumar can do 66 crores lifetime figure with Shahid's combo with Prabhu/Sonakshi, then Ajay's combo with them should be at least 75 crores.

I loved the song gangster baby.

But how I hope it flops