Well, this was interesting. Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety won the weekend on only 66 screens easily beating Padman and Padmavat (at least, this week). (figures as always courtesy of Rentrack by way of Bollywoodhungama)
Get ready, I’m gonna say something radical: I think people might actually want Indian movies that feel like Indian movies? Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety, which I didn’t see because I was busy at home writing a series of Sridevi posts, sounds like it is silly and bright and romantic and kind of ridiculous. And it’s doing better than Padman, the serious “high quality” film, and Welcome to New York, the big in joke comedy film with all the big name cameos.
More importantly, it’s doing better than them with NO STARS. This is the same thing that happened over the summer with Shubh Mangal Saavdhan and Bareilly Ki Barfi. People want love stories with little happy plots. And for some reason the big name stars are no longer willing to make them, or somehow once a big name star gets involved it stops being small. So it’s your smaller stars who make them and then everyone is stunned when the box office is good.
Well, not “everyone”. Welcome to New York released on 84 screens in America to Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety‘s 66. But my local all Indian theater only had 2 shows a day for Welcome to New York, and it had 5 of Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. Welcome to New York may have been able to win over the larger chains, but the little local Indian theaters are beginning to wake up to what really sells tickets and they saw something in Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety.
Not saying it set box office records, it made about $3,500 per screen in America. But that’s really good, considering it was barely promoted, had no stars, and the box office is in a terrible state here. It made about $4,000 per screen in Australia and New Zealand, which again isn’t record breaking, but is good for an unknown film. Tanked in the UK, but then they don’t like these small rom-coms much there.
But again, it’s the screen counts that tell the story. Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety had less screens everywhere but Australia than Padmavat in week 5. The expectation was that a big big heavily promoted star studded film, even in week 5, would do better than this little out of nowhere thing. And that’s just not true. The audience wants these smaller films, enjoys these smaller films, and that’s your best bet in these off weeks. Small and new is better than big and aging.
Or big and tired. Padman didn’t open well, and sank quickly post-opening. The per screen is just abysmal everywhere. Less than a thousand everywhere, in week 3. You could say it is because the release date was moved and promotional scheduled messed up, or because it opened when Padmavat was still strong, but considering that Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety had almost no promotion and Padmavat was dropping already when Padman came out, none of those arguments hold up.
(Akshay’s gotta find a new shtick. Again.)
The audience is just tired of this kind of film, the soft social justice movie. It’s been around since 3 Idiots and it’s time to move on. And the audience figures are telling us where to move on to, small clever rom-coms, that’s where people will go with no promotion, no stars, no reason besides a poster that catches their eye and a title that tells them what it is.
dontcallitbollywood 
I Disagree That SKTKS had no stars.
Kartik aryan is a big youth icon in India bcoz of his monologues in pyar ka punchnama series.
Secondly songs have been very well received by Indian audiences at least.
Thirdly the plot is relevant in today’s time, best friend vs gf.
Fourthly a similar low budget movie fukrey was also a mega hit.
I find it strange that critics/trade pundits do not rate such movies, like taran Aadhar ah 1st tweet regd SKTKS was that he was surprised with collection.
It meant he failed to read pulse of audience.
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Much like you…I saw the movie based on audience response…surprisingly all the stuff written about it being misogynist is not reflected either in its BO collections or even those who come to see the film…more than 50 percent of the audience in the South Delhi theatre where I saw the movie were women spread across all age groups…except for the climax which I thought took things too far, the rest of it was all in good humour, the women laughed and clapped as much as the men did…
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I agree shakya and we don’t live in a truly equal society even in Mumbai.
There is misogyny in every field, so y do we expect a movie which depicts real life characters not to have it?
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Thanks Akshat…you can see my views on the film here…
https://shakyamitra.wordpress.com/2018/02/24/sonu-ke-titu-ki-sweety-far-from-the-most-correct-film-but-entertaining-nevertheless/
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The actors of Sonu ke Titu ki sweety are well known for their Pyaar ka Punchnama movies, and as Akshat put it above, Kartik Tiwari is pretty famous for his monologue. I went to watch the movie, and while I hated it, people were hooting and clapping and cheering. The target audience for this are the 18-30 crowd mostly.
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Well, that answers one thing for me. For whatever reason, the 18-30 type movies always do terribly in the UK. There were a whole series of Masti-like sex farces last year which all did terribly.
On Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 8:41 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Uhh the Grand Masti types!! They didn’t do well in India either.
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And then for some reason they all landed on Netflix! No Amitabh classics, every sex farce of the past 5 years.
On Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 9:38 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Correct niviblog these movies have a dedicated audience. So they are a hit.
On the other hand social drama like padman had all the the ngs going in favour akshay sonam social media buzz social issue but still was a flop.
So I feel such small budget movies deserve more love from us audience, not loath and misogyny rants
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Well i agree with you on everything except the misogyny part, because I did find it pretty misogynistic. All the women characters have nothing to do in this. Atleast Pyaar ka Punchnama was funny. This was terrible IMO. But for whatever reason it is doing well, and I acknowledge that.
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This is a bro movie disguised as a rom com. There will always be a certain audience for movies that celebrate the male bond, especially in a society where men don’t get to choose their wives but do get to choose their best friend. It represents a kind of romance, nostalgia, freedom, youth, independence, coming of age. And certainly the gay subtext prevalent in all such films is part of the fun.
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My sister and I call it “homosexual pizazz”. Just makes you sit up and take notice, gives you that little extra bit of sexiness. Or, in the case of SOTY, a lot of extra bit of sexiness.
On Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 9:48 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Now that you have brought SOTY wasn’t it also sexist. Trapping boys, etc.
The story was non existent, at least SKTKS has a high concept.
But I guess having karan johar and star kids automatically elevates it.
Kartik aryan inspite of being a youth icon bcoz of his monologues does not get movies and sid malhotra/sonakshi/shraddha keep on getting mileage.
Sorry for the rant but expect such movies where would Kartik get chance?
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Exactly, this is part of the reason the smaller films are getting buzz and doing better. It’s small talented actors like Ayushmann and Rajkumar Rao and so on, instead of the same old-same olds who always come with over-whelming buzz until people are sick of it.
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I was giving the movie benefit of doubt based on friends reviews but the story is deeply sexist.
Spoiler the girl lost in the battle of sees but no reason was given why she was wrong in the first place. Titus selected sonu over sweety only bcoz they have a longer relationship.
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some songs in the movie are really pathetic.Luv ranjan has a reputation of labeling women as cunning and manipulative and i had a doubt this will be something similar to Pyar ka Punchnaama.
Judging by the reviews i was right .In fact i wont be surprised if the two male leads take out the beer bottles( after the main guy dumps the girl) and they all end up cracking sexist jokes.Looks like that guy is Ram Gopal Varma of rom com it is always the same theme.Women are manipulative and men are innocent.I’m not saying people like that don’t exist they do but he should stop showing that in every movie.Also the reason why probably people chose to watch it because there was nothing else better to watch .I fear this will give him more encouragement to make more movies with the same theme.I don’t want that.
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Another downside to weak big budget films! It leaves the theaters empty so people are willing to watch any old film that comes out so long as they don’t have to watch Padmavat or Padman again.
On Tue, Feb 27, 2018 at 3:08 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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well you can’t blame them.Most of them find excuses to get of the house when they get free time.Me and my friends on the other hand want to watch only good movies if not good at least something that is not offensive or dumb(twilight god i hate that movie but my friends loved it )
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The opening song has a bunch of women dancing to a song called “bum chika bum bum”. Pathetic.
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