MUMBAI: Salman Khan’s Veer, which hit theatres last Friday has done a net business of approximately Rs 190 million (Rs 19 crore) at the box office in its opening weekend in India. The movie managed to draw audiences in single screens across the country but the opening in the multiplexes has been poor with around 25 – 30 per cent occupancy and is not expected to go above 30 per cent in the coming week.

The film has done well only in the smaller centers. Fun Cinema COO Vishal Kapur tells Businessofcinema.com, “The opening of Veer has been very poor with an occupancy of around 20 – 25 per cent on most part of Friday. The reviews are very average and we don’t expect it to go up above 30 per cent."

On the other hand the first week collections of Chance Pe Dance have been very weak, with occupancy of around 30 per cent. Inox VP programming and distribution Utpal Acharya said, "Chance Pe Dance has not been up to the mark, even though it’s a dance film and is supposed to be a musical, the songs were not good."

Keeping aside the two new releases, 3 Idiots, in its fifth weekend did a net business of Rs 50 million (Rs 5 crore). The movie is still the crowd puller especially during the weekends. Even though the occupancy during the weekdays has gone down as compared to the earlier weeks, 3 Idiots is doing very well during the weekends. Till date the movie has done a net business of approximately Rs 1.88 billion (Rs 188 crore).

Besides the Hindi releases, Eros International’s Marathi release Shikshanacha Aaicha Gho, which released across 175 screens in Mumbai, CP and Nizam (Marathwada) on 15 January has collected over Rs 1.20 crore as net box office in its opening weekend. The reviews by critics as well as audiences have been positive.