• Even though it’s Friday, the Hindi box office is still boring because none of the new movies have done well at the box office.
• Phone Bhoot, starring Katrina Kaif, Ishaan Khatter, and Siddhant Chaturvedi, opened to a shockingly low profit.
• But even in the 1400 or so theatres where it was shown, only 10–12% of the seats were filled.

Even though it’s Friday, the Hindi box office is still boring because none of the new movies have done well at the box office. This has been the case for most new movies this year, except for a few. Phone Bhoot, starring Katrina Kaif, Ishaan Khatter, and Siddhant Chaturvedi, opened to a shockingly low Rs. 1.75–2.25 cr nett.

The movie came out on about 1,400 screens, which is a conservative number. But even in the 1400 or so theatres where it was shown, only 10–12% of the seats were filled. The movie came out at the same time as two other big movies, Mili and Double XL. Neither of them did very well, and their total earnings were less than Rs. 1 cr nett.

It’s that kind of week where a dubbed Kannada movie called Kantara is doing better than both dubbed movies and movies that have already come out, like Ram Setu and Thank God. Next week, a Hollywood movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, will again do better than Indian movies. Drishyam 2 and Bhediya will be the first Hindi movies to do well at the box office.

The horror comedy genre of Phone Bhoot is good for making money, but this movie doesn’t look good, and the numbers show it. Also, the movie seems more like a joke, and most people don’t like joke movies. Since the movie isn’t about something, it may be hard to keep going. The movie needs to grow by leaps and bounds over the weekend, but that also needs a big sample size, which is missing from the first day.

Phone Bhoot can be seen at a theatre near you.

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