Kalank box office collection: These are the 2 reasons for this multi-starrer multi-crore disaster

Multi-starrer movie Kalank has hit a new low in its collection at the Indian box office on Saturday. Several reasons are being quoted for the disastrous response for the Rs 150 crore film.

Riding on a huge hype, curiosity and expectations, Kalank was released in 5,300 screens across the globe on Wednesday to capitalise on the holiday of Mahavir Jayanti on April 17. The Abhishek Verman-directed film opened to stupendous response and collected Rs 21.60 crore net at the Indian box office on the first day. It became the biggest opener of the year beating the record of Akshay Kumar's Kesari.

But Kalank failed to strike a chord with the filmgoers and the word of mouth took a toll on its collection on the following days. The movie went on a free-falling spree and hit a new low on Saturday with its collection reaching Rs 8.59 in India. The film has collected a total of Rs 53.15 crore net at the Indian box office in four days and its gross total stands at Rs 63.37 crore in the domestic market.

On the other hand, Kalank has been going strong in the international markets and collected Rs 23.50 crore gross at the overseas box office in four days. Its global total stands at Rs 86.87. However, its good business in foreign countries is not good enough to compensate for its loss in the domestic market. The film is estimated to have earned around Rs 40 crore for its worldwide distributors.

Kalank is a period drama film featuring an ensemble cast of Varun Dhawan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha and Alia Bhatt. It has been jointly bankrolled by Fox Star Studios, Dharma Productions and Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, which invested a whopping amount of Rs 150 crore on its production and promotion. Fox Star Studios has distributed the film across the globe.

The stakes were really high on Kalank, but its average business in the cinema halls show that the film is heading to become the first disaster of the year for Bollywood, which has delivered back-to-back hits till now. The trade analysts are now busy finding out the reasons for its failure at the ticket counters. There are a host of aspects that contribute to its poor business, but two of them take away a major chunk in it.

Firstly, the ticket prices were hiked in a bid to recover their investments in its nine-day-extended first week. It is reported that the makers demanded that the rates should be 10 per cent more than that of Thugs of Hindostan, the last biggie that had sky-high prices. Secondly, the movie is lengthy, slow and dragging, which tests the patience of the filmgoers. This made many reject it outright.

Talking about its performance, Raj Bansal, who is a multiplex owner, film distributor and trade analyst, tweeted, "#Kalank is not being liked by the audience, but why such a big drop. It's because of high ticket pricing & the length of the film. If a movie is hit these two factors does not impact the collections but if it fails these two factors play a very important role at Box Office."

Responding to Raj, Sumit Kadel, another Bollywood trade analyst, tweeted, "Nobody minds to pay extra ₹ 40-50 for a well-made costume drama event film. #Kalank failed to perform because its a WEAK & BORING film,it would have collected even less if the tickets price had been low sir. Strictly my opinion!"

Sumit Kadel added, "Audience are ready to shed more bucks for event films, its a myth that audience avoids watching the film in a theater because the ticket price is ₹ 50-100 more than usual ticket pricing, niche films suffer cuz of high ticket pricing not event films. Picture buri hui toh pitegi. Thugs of Hindostan, kalank, zero ki ticket 50 rs bhi kar do after 2 days of the release toh bhi footfalls nai bhadte. Audience these days are very clever. AC ki hawa khaane koi nai jaata theatre."