Bollywoodhungama has the global figures for the weekend again.  Yay!  It’s my favorite part of the week!  Well, not my favorite part (new release Friday beats it easily), but it’s up there!

When Kapoor and Sons first came out, and swept the box office in America, I was curious if it would drop off in the second week, after word spread that it wasn’t exactly a standard Dharma picture.  I mean, I think a lot of people knew that already, but I bet there was also a good proportion of the audience that came in expecting a fun and light family comedy and were none to happy with what they got.  Which would mean the film would get a slight word-of-mouth drop in the second weekend.

Which is what happened!  Not like it flopped, not at all, it’s still doing really well.  But more like 20% of the opening weekend audience was disappointed, and told their friends not to bother.  But 80% got exactly what they expected and came back to watch it again, or told the 80% of the people they knew who they thought would like it to come and see it for the first time.  So the box office has lost that initial burst of confused people, but is holding steady with the ones who knew all along what they were in for.  Oh, and it also picked up a few screens, at least in America, after the success of last weekend.  Last weekend: 143 screens, $843,021 box office, about $5,800 per screen average.  This weekend: 153 screens, $474,385 box office, and $3,100 per screen average.  So, like I said, a significant drop.  But still doing really well.

But the thing is, and this is not being reported nearly enough, Kapoor and Sons is being beat across the board in global markets by regional releases.  Well, except for Malaysia.  Probably because Malaysia only goes for Tamil films and there weren’t any that came out last weekend.  The headlines are focused on the Punjabi film sweep of Australia so far this year (top releases for 2016 1 through 4, are all Punjabi), which is notable, but it’s also part of a bigger trend.  A new Telugu release (Oopiri) made almost twice as much as Kapoor and Sons on half as many screens in America.  Now, part of that is due to the inflated ticket cost opening weekend for Southern films (I’ve heard it can go up to $40 for opening night tickets, dropping to $20 over the first week), but a lot of it is because more people wanted to watch it than wanted to see Kapoor and Sons.

Another Punjabi release beat it in Canada.  Which is expected, Canada always goes for the Punjabi films.  But the UK went for the Punjabi film as well (Ambarsariya).  As did Australia and New Zealand, which have been on a big Punjabi streak lately, but haven’t been noted for that before this year.

Germany and UAE and Pakistan were the only countries where Kapoor and Sons won, and that is because they were the only Indian releases playing at all.  Which isn’t a coincidence.  Dharma was going for the non-traditional overseas audience for this film.

People are reporting the Kapoor and Sons international box office like a hit, because what they really mean is “look!  Non-Indians like our movies!”  Everything about Kapoor and Sons, from the plot to the costumes to the film style to the lack of songs (still mad about them cutting “Let’s Nacho”) to the length of the film screams “HEY!  White people!  Here is an Indian movie you will like!”  That’s why it’s playing in Germany, and picking up screens in the US, even as the box office figures frankly aren’t that impressive.  Not to say it’s bad, it’s definitely doing very well, but it’s not doing “Oh My God!  This is Revolutionary!!!” numbers.

(For comparison, opening weekend was the highest of 2016 so far, but it only made 20% more than Airlift despite having 33% as many screens.  And the per screen average is a joke compared to Neerja‘s.  Kapoor and Sons is a good movie with a good promotional campaign, but the only reason it broke any record is because the distributors pushed for more screens in more countries.)

And meanwhile, the diaspora audience is flooding away from Kapoor and Sons to regional offerings, ones that were made specifically for them, not for some imagined Western audience.  Not all the diaspora audience of course.  Like I said above, the trailers and promotions were pretty straight-forward about what kind of movie this was going to be, I am sure there are plenty of people who came opening weekend and got exactly what they expected and are coming back for more.  But there are plenty of others who came, saw, and hated it.  And this week, they chose to see a Telugu or a Punjabi or Malayalam film instead.