Starring Salman Khan, Jai Ho box office collections were competing with Aamir Khan’s super-movie Dhoom 3, which had created history by grossing over Rs 500 crore and much was expected from the Dabangg star. However, Jai Ho fell much, much short of the target. The reason is not hard to find.
Once considered a total jinx, the first month of the year is not as bad as before now, but still considered a dull month to release a film, the exception being Republic Day: January 26.
This is ?a time when the North belt is under a ?cold weather? spell from December end, and since it?s a big market, producers avoid releasing a film around that time.
On an average, 30 per cent of a film?s revenues come from the North, and if the film has a strong northern flavour, then the percentage can increase even more. Besides January 26 being a national holiday, it is also a time when the cold wave has subsided considerably. For instance, Race 2 released on the Republic Day weekend last year, and did well. Agneepath, which released in 2012, proved to be the biggest hit for Dharma Productions, until Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani came along.
Given the trend, most films that released in January haven?t done well, but the jinx did come undone in the past when No One Killed Jessica (2011), which released in the first week of the first month of the year, was a hit.
Salman Khan starrer Jai Ho released on January 24 and managed to do decent business, but it was a flop if you looked at what Dhoom 3 managed. Surely, the January jinx had something to do with it.
Big film of the month: Jai Ho starring Salman Khan made a business of Rs 104.9 crore at the end of Week 3.
