Selfie Week 1 Box Office: Akshay Kumar, Emraan Hashmi's Film Loses Steam; It Collects Rs 14 Crores In 7 Days

Table of Contents

Selfie, starring Akshay Kumar, Emraan Hashmi, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Diana Penty, and directed by Raj Mehta, had an alarmingly low first week at the box office, with collections failing to even touch Rs. 15 crores after seven days. After 7 days the film came together around Rs.13.80 crore nett. This spoof comedy-drama has never taken off, ever since pre-bookings. On the first day itself, it was quite clear that the film was headed for a very unfortunate fate. There were several factors supporting and several factors against the film. Unfortunately for the makers, the factors against the film were much stronger.

Team Selfiee failed to engage the audience despite featuring an A-Lister like Akshay Kumar

The results of Selfiee sent shock waves throughout the Hindi film industry as no one in their wildest dreams expected a film featuring a top-billing star that was produced by one of the biggest banners in the industry. which is struggling to raise Rs. 20 crores net over his lifetime. To add salt to the wounds, Selfiee is neither a niche film nor have there been compromises in terms of promotions and publicity. In this, the film had no problems even before its release, that is, it had an extremely smooth release and actually has one more week open to earn, right next to the release of Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar.

The severity of the failure of a film like Selfie is greater than the failure of other films

There was an audience for remake films, medium films and mostly for Akshay Kumar films before the pandemic, but the dynamics have completely changed post the pandemic where the audience has become very picky about the content they want to watch on the big screen. Movies that warrant a big screen experience are preferred to be watched on big screens, and movies that can be made without being watched on a big screen are more likely to wait to be directly watched digitally. While Selfiee isn’t the only film to flop after the pandemic, the gravity of a film like Selfiee’s failure is far greater than other films and the extent of how bad the numbers are cannot be understated.

Akshay Kumar’s film frequency and ubiquity cost his films a lot

The harsh reality and the elephant in the room that needs to be addressed is the fact that Akshay Kumar’s omnipresence is not going down well with the viewers. When an A-list actor like Akshay Kumar is thrust into the faces of potential viewers every day, the likelihood of seeing that actor on the big screen starts to fade. The momentum required to get audiences to watch a feature film on the big screen in today’s day and age is certainly difficult. But it’s impossible, especially for someone who has a high frequency of movies and direct digital releases every year, to drive audiences to theaters for every release. The choices for the viewer are too many and there is a dire need to build the curiosity that is needed to attract the audience to the theaters, otherwise there will truly never be a shortage of options. There are likely several other films in the pipeline that have very limited theatrical audiences, and given the way things are, those films could face even tougher times.

Akshay Kumar makes new film choices keeping in mind what most of his audience wants from him

Akshay Kumar is now working on the sequel to Hera Pheri and reviving several more of his comic franchises. He also made Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, a film whose scale cannot be understated in any way. The release of the sequel to the super hit Oh My God is also around the corner and Akshay Kumar is again playing a very important role in it. These are either movies that have a cult following or movies that are shot on a massive scale. With these films, he can at least win back some of the audience. The only concern here is that it would be difficult for the actor to deliver a successful film outside of his franchise films and big films given that they lack curiosity, something that can be felt from a number of determinants.