MUMBAI: The Akshay Kumar and Anushka Sharma starrer Patiala House has opened better in the north with around 55% occupancy on Friday. However, the film has not managed to pull in crowds in the South. The opening in places like Bangalore and Hyderabad were dull.

In it’s opening day, the movie did net collections of approximately Rs 40.5 million (Rs 4.05 crore) across India. 

The film is likely to pick up over the weekend considering the fact that it’s a complete family film release after a long gap, with a lot of drama. The reviews of the film have also been good and the viewers too have appreciated the film, especially the second half of the film.

On an average, the film has opened to around 35 – 50 per cent occupancy and with word of mouth publicity, the weekend looks promising. Multiplexes expect occupancy to go up to about 75 per cent over the weekend.

Speaking to Businessofcinema.com, Inox India associate vice president Rajendra Singh Jayala said, “The film has had an average opening between 35 – 50 per cent occupancy depending on the location. However, the advance booking is good and with the response to the film being good, occupancy should go up to about 75 per cent.”

Big Cinemas COO (West & South) Ashish Saxena added, “The opening in the North was better than the rest. Elsewhere the occupancy has been around 25 – 35 per cent. The word of mouth publicity is decent and occupancy should go up during the weekend.”

Fun Cinemas senior vice president Deepak Saluja said, “There are a lot of queries for the weekend so the weekend looks good. Occupancy over the weekend could be around 70 to 80 per cent.”

It’s a matter of wait and watch whether this will be the turn around film for Akshay Kumar, who has delivered a string of flops recently! Watch this space for more.

With inputs from HETAL ADESARA