Bhediya, directed by Amar Kaushik, is the director's first film with actor Varun Dhawan. A supernatural comic-thriller, Bhediya is about a young man who gets bitten by a mysterious wolf in the middle of the woods, and finds himself turning into one during full moon night. Bhediya also stars Kriti Sanon as the female lead, along with Abhishek Banerjee, Deepak Dobriyal, Paalin Kabak and Saurabh Shukla in the cast. Bhediya Box Office: Varun Dhawan-Kriti Sanon's Film Grosses Rs 43.67 Crore Worldwide in First Weekend.

Releasing on November 25, Bhediya has scored decent reviews, including a three-star review from us as well. At the box office though, the entertainer with a social message collected Rs 7.48 crore on opening day and Rs 28.55 crore after its first weekend (domestic). This can be considered as an average start for the film, considering it has two top and popular stars in Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon (who also worked together in Dilwale) as the leads.

Especially for Varun, Bhediya is his fourth lowest grossing film when it comes his opening weekend earnings, having 15 theatrical releases under his belt. The only three films that earned lower than Bhediya in their opening weekends are the below (in descending order of earnings):

Badlapur -  Rs 23.5 Crore

Main Tera Hero - Rs 22.73 Crore

October - Rs 18.25 Crore

Interesting observation here is that the mid-credit scene of Bhediya confirms that it is set within the same universe as Amar Kaushik's 2018 sleeper hit Stree, starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor along with Banerjee, and Stree actually out-earned Bhediya in its opening weekend, earning 31.26 crore and doing enough lifetime business (Rs 129.90 crore) to be declared a hit and give the makers enough confidence to kickstart a cinematic universe. Bhediya Ending Explained: How Varun Dhawan-Kriti Sanon's Film Expands Stree-Universe With Its Big Finale Twist and Surprise Mid-Credit Scene.

So what's not going well with Bhediya that it isn't working so well going by Varun's own BO report card? For one, Bhediya comes at a time when Ajay Devgn's Drishyam 2 is rocking at the box office, in fact out-performing the new release over the weekend earning Rs 39.24 crore even though it is in its second weekend.

Secondly, Varun has not been doing well at the box office himself. Since Kalank, that came out in 2019, bombed hard at the box office, Varun's films have been performing not so well in theatres, with Street Dancer 3D also failing while this year's Jugjugg Jeeyo, despite earning good reviews and backed by Dharma Productions, was just an average grosser. One thing to note here is that Kalank, Street Dancer 3D and JJJ had earned better than Bhediya in their opening weekend, grossing Rs 62.75 crore, Rs 39 crore and Rs 36.93 crore respectively.

Thirdly, in my opinion, when compared to Stree (that scored more when it comes to humour), Bhediya is a little more scarier and serious (even though the Himesh Reshammiya gag is the funniest scene of 2022). Also the concept of a 'werewolf' feels a bit more 'foreign' to the audiences in the interiors compared to the earthy appeal of a chudail in Stree.

Yet, trade analysts like Taran Adarsh are quite confident with the film's performance, as you can seen the tweet below:

There is a reason to share Taran's optimism here. For one, Bhediya is getting good feedback from both critics and audience, who are praising the film's VFX, the plot themes, and the performances of the cast, especially Vaun and Abhishek, which we hope helps the film in getting better growth over the rest of the week. Another interesting aspect to note here is that, the other lower opening weekend grossers of Varun - Badlapur, Main Tera Hero and October  - didn't fail at the box office.

Sriram Raghavan's Badlapur, riding on a wave of critical acclaim, was a Hit. David Dhawan's Main Tera Hero was a semihit, while the songless but acclaimed Shoojit Sircar's slow-burn drama October was average at the box office. So Varun fans don't need to feel worried, yet! (All collections sourced from Bollywood Hungama)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 28, 2022 01:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).