MUMBAI: Two films were released this weekend – UTV Motion Pictures’ What’s Your Raashee? and Anjum Rizwi’s Fast Forward. While the former has had an okay opening, the latter’s opening at the box office has been very poor.

What’s Your Raashee? has seen occupancy in the range of 40 – 80 per cent across PVR and Inox multiplexes. The movie is doing better in some multiplexes in metros. On the other hand, Fast Forward had a below average opening and has not managed to woo the audience at all.

One of the reasons for What’s Your Raashee? not opening to full houses, is the length of the film. The film has duration of three and a half hours, which has not gone down too well with the audience. According to sources, the producers are planning to chop the length of the film by 10 – 12 minutes by Sunday. At the time of filing this story, UTV Motion Pictures’ officials were not available for comment.

Speaking to Businessofcinema.com about the box office performance of the two movies, PVR Cinemas programming head Prakhar Joshi said, "Fast Forward is running in only two of our properties and the opening has been below average. What’s Your Raashee? opened around 50 per cent on the lower side and 80 per cent on the higher side across our properties. The female audience is enjoying the film more than the male audience."

Inox vice president vice president programming and distribution Utpal Acharya informs, "What’s Your Raashee? opened to about 40 per cent occupancy and then went up to 55 – 60 per cent over the weekend. The length of the film is the main problem and it’s an out and out female film."

On the other hand, Salman Khan’s Wanted is holding steady at single screens and is also doing a decent run at multiplexes. According to information available, the movie’s first week net collections are in the range of Rs 350 – 360 million (Rs 35 – 36 crore). The movie has performed beyond expectations and is on its way to becoming the biggest hits of the year so far. Moreover, Dil Bole Hadippa has also not found favour with the audience and has witnessed a drop in collections through the week. This, coupled with the dull opening of Fast Forward, is likely to work in favour of Wanted, which has now entered its second week. An icing on the cake is also the long weekend, with Monday being a holiday (Dusshera). Hence one can expect footfalls for Wanted increasing or at least remaining steady over the weekend.

(With inputs from HETAL ADESARA)