The cinemas in Maharashtra opened on Friday and it was a muted response generally in the state with limited cinemas open and no real Hindi film to screen. There were films like BABLOO BACHELOR and BHAVAI but these are hardly going to get a response.

The plus was Mumbai city where the public did return in decent numbers for Hollywood films like NO TIME TO DIE and VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE. These films recorded good occupancy in evening shows on Friday and Saturday especially NO TIME TO DIE.

NO TIME TO DIE actually recorded slightly better collections than its last weekend due to Maharashtra opening and this was mainly due to Mumbai city. The film has now collected around 25 crore nett which is 1.50 crore nett behind SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS (the biggest Hollywood grosser post second lockdown) and may edge past it in a week or so.

The multiplex chain Inox held a promotion of free tickets on all shows for an hour across Maharashtra on Friday morning and this saw a huge turnout as they recorded 98% occupancy on these shows and sold over 5500 tickets. This shows the Covid-19 fear is not there with the audience and its going to boil down to communicating cinemas is back across the nation and then content being worth the ticket price.

NO TIME TO DIE has decent business in India as it approaches the 20 crore nett mark after its second weekend. Its the second best Hollywood performer after SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS post the second reopening of cinemas. In North India, it has done better than SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS.

The film has turned out to be a huge boost for cinemas internationally especially Europe as it bought out an audience which has not ventured into cinemas since the pandemic. The film has easily broken all post pandemic records in most of Europe and the holds in second weekend are also super strong. The market in USA may see the $55 million plus number as so so but with Bond not really being huge there and a market post pandemic mainly driven by youth films, its actually a good result for the film.

NO TIME TO DIE stands at around $315 million worldwide after its second weekend with Europe being on par and some some markets even ahead of SKYFALL which is the biggest Bond film to date. The film waited over a year for cinemas and came without a streaming date with confidence in theatrical exhibition and it has worked out very well for the film.

The collections of NO TIME TO DIE in India till date are as follows.

First Week - 16,00,00,000 (8 days)

Second Weekend - 3,75,00,000

NO TIME TO DIE is doing fair business in India with business of 14 crore nett over its first six days. The film got a good boost on Saturday due to the national holiday. The extended eight day first week will finish at around a little under 16 crore nett but it should be able to collect well over the second weekend.

NO TIME TO DIE will comfortably cross the 20 crore nett mark but it remains to be seen if it can get to the 25 crore nett. SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS is the only Hollywood release to cross the 25 crore nett mark since cinemas reopened in August. NO TIME TO DIE is trending around 10% less than that film which is pretty good as there is a huge difference in the brand of Bond as compared to Marvel in India with the latter being far ahead.

NO TIME TO DIE has fared better in the North than SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS with business in Delhi/UP and East Punjab hitting 5 crore nett in six days while the business of SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS was 4.25 crore nett. This is also down to the improving conditions in Delhi city and Punjab. The other circuits are doing less than SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS.

The collections of NO TIME TO DIE till date are as follows.

Thursday - 2,35,00,000

Friday - 2,15,00,000

Saturday - 4,00,00,000 

Sunday - 3,50,00,000

Monday - 1,10,00,000

Tuesday - 1,00,00,000

NO TIME TO DIE has collected around 8.50 crore nett in three days as it got a boost from the holiday for Gandhi Jayanti on Saturday. The film is heading for an extended four day weekend of around 11.5-12 core nett which is decent.

The best news for the film in India is the business in Delhi NCR which is better than SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS which is the best Hollywood performer post the second wave. East Punjab is also better than SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS despite Punjabi films dominating though still a good chunk of the business is from South. These results are mainly due to Delhi and Punjab being in a better position than three weeks back as more people have returned back to the theatres.

The wait is now for the big Hindi release and Delhi NCR is ready to give big numbers (allowing for the 50% cap rule). 

The collections of NO TIME TO DIE till date are as follows.

Thursday - 2,35,00,000

Friday - 2,15,00,000

Saturday - 4,00,00,000 apprx

NO TIME TO DIE collected in the 2-2.25 crore nett range on its first day with again the South circuits leading again. But there has been an improvement in Delhi city as the gap between the collections of SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS and NO TIME TO DIE is less in the capital than the rest of the country. Some major multiplexes had similar collections to SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS in Delhi city.

So the overall total is not that good but there is some improvement in the box office compared to a few weeks back. Also Bond in India is far short of Marvel as a brand. So getting similar collections in big Delhi multiplexes is a good sign and shows market is slowly improving though its region specific.

NO TIME TO DIE is a huge franchise in Europe and it has got an excellent start in United Kingdom with first day collections of £4.5 million plus and this is when post the pandemic very few films have crossed £20 million for their lifetime business. NO TIME TO DIE will cross that mark in a matter of days putting life into the box office in UK which has struggled despite restriction being lifted for some time.

The problem was mainly the lack of films catering to the UK audience but there is nothing bigger than Bond for UK and the audiences have returned in numbers.