SELFIEE collected a horrible 14.25 crore nett in its first week. The first week collections are in the range of films like UUNCHAI, JAYESHBHAI JORDAAR and RADHE SHYAM but none of these films really had much of a cast and SELFIEE is a bigger film for the box office though maybe not the biggest in terms of production cost.

There will be no competition this weekend with the holdovers still dominating the screen space but SELFIEE will hardly get any advantage due to rejection of the film. The 20 crore nett mark is still an ask from here and if there had been a release, then it would have added just 1 or 2 crore to its total.

There was disbelief in the industry when the film released but slowly it all sinks in that today, a star in the wrong content can give numbers like a non star. Basically a star in a film without any mass appeal is pretty much like the star not being there and initial numbers cant come unless there is some blockbuster song but even those collections wont last for too long.

The collections of SELFIEE are as follows.

Friday - 2,60,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 3,75,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 3,85,00,000 apprx

Monday - 1,15,00,000 apprx

Tuesday - 1,00,00,000 apprx

Wednesday - 1,00,00,000 apprx

Thursday - 90,00,000 apprx

SELFIEE dropped 55% on its Monday with collections in the 1.15 crore nett range. It was on the cards with no growth on Sunday and it would be have been no surprise if the fall was more. The film has collections of a little over 11.25 crore nett in four days and its looking a 14 crore nett first week for the film.

There is no major new release this week but still the film will not be able to reach the 20 crore mark. It is a ridiculously low number for the film but shows that there is absolutely no hope today for films that do not look interesting and then on top have weak content even if with stars.

The only hope was a pre pandemic release as these sort of films managed to find an audience in the multiplexes at major centres but now story telling has to be in cinematic format while earlier many films managed to succeed without this and the list was long. The change was always going to come but the pandemic has made it rapid which leaves many films still to be released which don't tell a story how it should be for a cinema release.

The collections of SELFIEE are as follows.

Friday - 2,60,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 3,75,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 3,85,00,000 apprx

Monday - 1,15,00,000 apprx

SELFIEE just got over the 10 crore nett mark for its first weekend as Sunday was pretty much flat but this was expected as collections were so bad in mass circuits for the first two days. The Sunday growth comes from the mass pockets but this film was never going to appeal there. The weekend has collected 10.25 crore nett and even if a miracle happens and Monday is higher than Friday, that still will not be good enough for the film.

There is doom and gloom in the industry with various theories doing the rounds but it has to remembered there is another film hitting the 500 crore nett mark. So, if you go by that, there is nothing wrong. Its all about the content and only good content will be awarded now and it has to come in the entertainment form or the emotional form and if both combine, then God knows where the numbers can go. 

The best way to see these type of films is delayed films although they are not actually delayed; they were started at a time when it was not known that there would be such a huge shift in the demands of the box office. The sad part is there are probably 8-10 other films still to come like this featuring stars and it would not be correct to name them. You just have to take it on the chin if you come to the theatres or take a loss and go direct streaming which can hide the fate in terms of perception.

The real problem would be if these type of films are launched now and still releasing in theatres in  2024 and after. It is fine for non cast films to be in this zone but for a genuine star to start a film today which has no reach is asking for a beating at the box office. Its a pretty simple logic that when the audience base has gone down, you have to reach out wider and further to succeed this will have to be understood by the industry.

The first weekend of SELFIEE are as follows.

Friday - 2,60,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 3,75,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 3,85,00,000 apprx

SELFIEE showed an upturn of around 40-45% which was always likely due to the very low collections on day one. This takes the two day collections of the film to 6.25 crore nett and it will be a weekend of little over 10 crore nett.

The collections hardly matter as the film just cant recover from the sort of start it got. The question is how can an Akshay Kumar film have such low numbers and its pretty simple the content has no reach. The likes of BACHCHHAN PAANDEY, SAMRAT PRITHVIRAJ, RAKSHA BANDHAN and RAM SETU, however good or bad, were always going to get some initial audience in the core states while here as soon as the trailer hit, you know UP, MP, Gujarat etc were not coming.

RAKSHA BANDHAN, on real value without the holiday was 5.50 crore nett, and it recorded higher numbers than LAAL SINGH CHADDHA in many mass circuits and that was an event film. At the end of the day, SELFIEE was never getting to Raksha Bandhan real value number. So the 2.60 crore nett number is lower than it should be but its also not that the film should be opening 6-8 crore nett and its opened 2-3 crore nett.

The collections of SELFIEE in UP (not counting NCR) on day 1 were 20-22 lakhs and RAKSHA BANDHAN covered this much from the two biggest cities of UP alone (Lucknow and Kanpur) on day one. If an Akshay Kumar film is unable to collect in UP, then there is huge trouble ahead. Today if a big star does content which will not reach the core Hindi audiences, then there is no hope from day one itself, it was seen with RUNWAY 34 and now with SELFIEE. Both are big star films but with content which holds little appeal.

The two day numbers of SELFIEE are as follows.

Friday - 2,60,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 3,75,00,000 apprx

SELFIEE collected a very poor 2.50 crore nett on day one which is the lowest Akshay Kumar opening probably since 8 x 10 TASVEER in 2009. In real value, it is probably lower than that film. There is actually not much to say about the number as the number itself says it all. The fate of the film was pretty much on the cards when the trailer hit and though the opening is half of what it should have done, it would have not really made much difference if it had opened at 4-5 crore nett.

The film has the presence of Akshay Kumar but when a big star is not presented well as a hero today and on top the film is like SELFIEE, then that star value is of a little use. SELFIEE is a film in a similar zone to AN ACTION HERO (2022) where the public knows the hero is playing a film hero in the film. So, the commercial elements are going to be fake and not part of the story which puts into the head its a fake type of film or spoof type film which it may not be.

Akshay Kumar had the most HITS pre pandemic but with the changing profile of the audience it has gone the other way now. A lot of these films have been greenlighted in that Covid19 period as it was probably assumed the same zone of cinema will still work post pandemic which has not turned out to be the case. There are still 3-4 of these films left in various stages of production and will be completed and have to be released. The problem today has become that if a film has no mass reach, then it just cannot justify a big star in that film in terms of box office numbers.

The best way out is direct to digital but there is a huge downturn there in terms of revenue. Also all this does is hide the result. Its like you have these crap shows like FARZI and THE NIGHT MANAGER being lauded over the last week or so and SELFIEE could have joined that brigade but now it has the box office hanging over its head which never lies. A film like CUTTPUTLLI was said to have set records on digital and it may have but what is the competition and SELFIEE could have beaten these records. Going that route can give perception but eventually people and the naked eye does not lie, irrespective of what is said.

As far as SELFIEE goes now there is not much to say. The film should grow over the weekend and it may even grow well but due to the initial it does not really matter.