What went wrong with ALADIN and LONDON DREAMS?

'Aladin' has failed at the box office while 'London Dreams' too is trying to keep its head above water. So what went wrong with these mega budget films that were touted to be big money spinners before their release?

The dismal show of ALADIN makes one wonder yet again if Hindi filmgoers really have an appetite for VFX heavy films? First 'Love Story 2050', then 'Drona' and now 'Aladin'-A terrible box office showing of such films make the fact crystal clear that audiences are just not inclined to step into theatres to even give a chance to films belonging to fantasy genre. There is something called word-of-mouth that comes into play in making a film hit or a flop. But how can one explain the fate of a movie like 'Aladin' when audiences were not even willing to watch the film on the first day and then spread any word-of-mouth?

Let's look at 'London Dreams' now. While lack of popular music is said to be a major factor behind the slow opening of the film, it is not really a point to be universally agreed upon. Something like this reflects in the Friday opening, not subsequent days. The audiences chose to keep a distance from the movie after an uneven opening weekend. Eventually, there wasn't much addition to the weekend collection with the first week billing coming close to 23 crores- a low total for a film which is a costly affair.

If one digs deep down, another factor that comes to mind is the overdose factor. Frankly, a consumer can't be expected to shell out bucks practically every week. 'Wake Up Sid', 'Do Knot Disturb', 'Blue', 'All The Best' -How many films can audiences step in week after week? There was bound to be one film that would eventually get impacted and that unfortunately happened to be 'London Dreams'. Same set of audiences who took a breather last week were more than happy to give a dekko at Ranbir's 'Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani' after they were out of theatre action three weeks after the release of 'Blue' and 'All The Best'.

Sampurn Media