March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic hit us and cinemas across the world were closed. While few cinemas reopened in September 2020 and summers 2021, most remained shut. Finally after a long wait cinema’s all across the country reopened on the 19th of October as per the instructions of Government of Pakistan. The first few films to release were Venom: Let there be Carnage and Dune. Both these films garnered very below average occupancies showing that the audiences were still not ready to go back to inhouse viewership as usual. The latest marvel release ‘The Eternals’ showed some spark at the box office but overall the response was lackluster.
Khel Khel Mein
19 November, saw the release of the first Pakistani film ‘Khel Khel Mein’ post the pandemic and we must say the performance at the box office does show some promise. The film has collected a total of 1.85 crores in its first week which considering the limited screens it got and being the first film to come out post the pandemic is a good enough result.
Please see below for the daily breakdown:
Friday: 28lacs
Saturday: 60lacs
Sunday: 42lacs
Monday: 14lacs
Tuesday: 15lacs
Wednesday: 14lacs
Thursday: 12lacs
Total:1.85 crore
The numbers indicate two positive factors for Khel Khel Mein, as the film showed a massive jump on Saturday and has maintained approximately 50% of Fridays collections on weekdays. This shows the film could have strong legs at the box office but a lot depends on the slate of releases expected in the coming week.
The film opened in a few overseas markets and was able to collect a total of 65 lacs in the first week. With this Khel Khel Mein currently stands at a total of 2.5crores worldwide.
New releases
Today saw the release of 3 new films: Sheenogai, Encanto , and Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City
Sheenogai is a local release, a revenge thriller directed by Abu Aleeha whereas Encanto and Resident Evil are both Hollywood releases. All three films have opened with very low occupancy levels and we expect Khel Khel Mein to take the lead for this weekend as well.
These box office numbers are estimates given by an independent box office tracking site Box Office Detail