Box Office: Aladin looks to tower over London's D

Next comes Blue which will not be able to recover its reported 80-100 crore investment by any stretch and is headed for box office flop status. The sobering fact that the opening though good wasn't anywhere near recordbreaking despite Diwali opportunity, and after Kambakth Ishq also faring below expectations, Blue tapering out is a major dampener for Akshay Kumar though his next D3 with Priyadarshan is promising and may improve the year for him.

Coming in last after opening last was the Salman Khan-Kareena Kapoor saga, Mr. aur Mrs. Khanna which, opened at 10-15% and finished worst also, is one of the biggest disasters in recent times. Salman Khan is back again with a double hero London Dreams.

Which brings to the current week. So far, the advance for London Dreams has opened to an ok advance response of 20% or so in India while it's expected to fare better in UK etc. for obvious reasons. In India, the film will open better than Main aurr Mrs. Khanna on Friday as the promos have registered better and the volume of screenings are higher. But for a film earlier reported on terms such as 120 crores for distribution acquisition by Studio 18 earlier, this is a problem. And in major portions of the country, it may eventually get overrun by competition from the Amitabh Bachchan starrer Aladin, whose advance has opened on par with or ahead of London Dreams in India despite fewer screenings, with early lead in Bengal and South. Though for some reason, it took many theaters a while to figure out schedules, and neither film has posted a spectacular advance as the films' promoters would have liked. In case of Aladin there have been two problems. One, the actor playing title role, Ritesh Deshmukh, is not a box office star per say, which may mislead potential casual viewers seeing posters into thinking Aladin is a Ritesh Deshmukh film with others merely supporting or special appearances. Secondly, Arabian Fantasy tales are not exactly box office gold as a genre in India. However the actual reports on the film itself are very strong from the industry insiders who have seen the film in previews. The insiders are confident of the film.

The USP of Aladin is Bachchan supposedly in a one-man-show do-it-all mode, not witnessed too much this decade. Last example probably being Dashrath Singh in Bunty&Babli (though BnB had a spectacular advance). Opposite him will be Sanjay Dutt as the nemesis/villain which can emerge a powerful combination at the box office. Ritesh Deshmukh is not a box office star per say but his performance is also being billed as one of the highlights. The USP of London Dreams on the other hand, is the HDDCS Ajay Devgan-Salman Khan duo, without Aishwarya Rai, but with the theme of 'Rock On'.

Reports on London Dreams are decent and its marketing promotion is near maximum so it is possible the film could open better than its advance is indicating but a huge opening is ruled out . It is also possible if word of mouth is strong, both London Dreams and Aladin could end up successful. Though unlikely, it has happened in the past where two movies do well simultaneously, for instance in 2001 Sunny Deol's Gadar beat Aamir Khan starrer Lagaan in opening week and overall, but Lagaan too was a Hit. The same happened with Dil and Ghayal in 1990, and Welcome and Taare Zameen Par in 2007.

However the current status is that though advance for London Dreams had opened earlier and on more allocated screens, rate of bookings for Aladin overall nationally are running on par or higher. And both movies are counting on a quick pickup to be witnessed from Friday evening onwards.