JERSEY had a low opening day of around 3.75-4 crore nett and the collections of the film did not jump much in the evening. Obviously they were better than compared to the morning and afternoon shows but they did not propel the film to a higher level which was needed as the start was low.

After the pandemic, its been all been about the bigger budget films that the audience seems to be coming out for. Not that all the bigger budget films have worked but they have at least got some footfalls initially. The medium and smaller films have struggled to even hit the 5 crore nett mark. The best has been ANTIM - THE FINAL TRUTH at around 4.75 crore nett driven by the star presence of Salman Khan and after that it will probably be JERSEY at 3.75 crore nett.

These films would have surely got higher numbers if released before the pandemic but the box office seems to going through a huge correction for smaller and medium films. But it also has to be said that all these type of films released so far from November have not had a hit song and most of them have had dry subjects and not looked like entertainers. So maybe hit music and a film that looks more entertaining could change this scenario.

The scenario actually must change as there are so many of these type of films which are a back log from 2019 waiting in the wings to release. There will be many of these type of films coming in May and hopefully something will break through with some sort of initial.

As for JERSEY, there should be some growth on day two but even there it has been seen post the pandemic that the Saturday growth is not the same with content films doing in the 30% range when earlier it used to be 50-60% or even 70% in some cases. THE KASHMIR FILES is an exception to the rule. The film is aimed at families and a more mature audience and so Saturday and Sunday will show an upturn but the how much will that upturn be remains to be seen.

The plus for JERSEY is that the film has recovered costs from non theatrical like digital satellite and music. So there is no pressure on theatrical to perform in terms of recovery. This is not just the case with JERSEY but also many of the other medium budget films releases post the pandemic. The four week window is helping here which enables a higher digital recovery but this window is not going to last forever.

Also JERSEY waited for the cinemas for some time with a couple of postponements. So irrespective of recovery already being there you want the film to get some audience and some sort of run at the box office which eventually is that ultimate test.