Three weeks ago, the Pakistan industry saw business flourish. Three big films graced the silver screen; London Nahi Jaunga, Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad, and Thor: Love & Thunder. The films opened to an astounding response overall and for the first time in a long time, the industry felt alive. The box office numbers game, though, then took an ugly turn and the official figures for especially the local movies started coming in with a lot of suspicion regarding their verifications. Please find below the milestones touched by both the films over the past few weeks:
Box Office: London Nahi Jaunga
7 days total (26.6 crores official, 24 crores sources)
10 days total (35.21 crores official, 32 crores sources)
14 days total (40.1 crores official, 40 crores sources)
20 days total (47.2 crores official, 44.1crores)
Box Office: Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad
7 days total (20 crores official, 11 crores sources)
10 days total (28 crores official, 14.9 crores sources)
14 days total (37 crores official, 18 crores sources)
Analysis
The question here arises that LNJ is running on nearly similar reported numbers with sources, but the difference in QAZ is a bit alarming. The basic answer to this question is that any number given by anyone in the industry currently is not verifiable.
Overseas numbers, that have a stark difference can be sourced through a website called comScore. This is a worldwide platform that tracks numbers for people in different parts of the world, and to get these numbers, one needs to be subscribed to the website. In Pakistan, distributors and trade analysts claim to give official numbers from the website. These numbers cannot be verified by anyone and have to be believed at face value.
The best conclusion that one can derive from this whole scenario is that whatever numbers are being reported, it is good news for the industry that we are earning money. The fudging of numbers is unfortunately a common practice globally, especially in our neighboring country as comScore is not available there too. Our local and overseas numbers cannot be verified. The official numbers of overseas coming from producers and sources have to be taken at face value.
We would want to congratulate and enjoy this success, even if we may not know the entirety of the truth to the numbers. We would pray that this results in more movies being produced and makers find the belief to make good cinema. As for the numbers, the truth cannot be properly unraveled and yes, the films are a big success, but the magnitude of success will remain a suspense.
Best of luck to our cinema now and we hope that films keep on making money.
