Zero Box Office: Shah Rukh Khan’s Film Is a Disaster That Cannot Be Saved Despite Late Positive Reviews and Upward Trend – Here’s Why
Zero faced a barrage of negative reviews on the day of the release, and the word of mouth campaign was also not in favour of the film.
Before writing this story, I would like to quote a line from the 2006 film The Holiday, where the late Eli Wallach, who plays a retired screenwriter, claims exasperatedly, "A picture has to make a killing the first weekend or it's dead. This is supposed to be conducive to great work?" Unfortunately, our interest in the box office is all in the opening weekend, and how the film fares in there. The first three days (or more, if the movie has an extended weekend) decides the fate of your movie. Going by that case, Zero is an unmitigated disaster! Zero Box Office Collection Day 5: Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif's Film Earns Rs 81.32 Crore.
It pains to write this since I was one of the few critics who ended up giving Zero a positive review and genuinely liked the movie. However, the meta-infused narrative and outlandish premise didn't appeal to most of the moviegoers and the critics. Zero faced a barrage of negative reviews on the day of the release, and the word of mouth campaign was also not in favour of the film. Zero Movie Review: Shah Rukh Khan’s Infectious Charm, Anushka Sharma’s Brilliant Act and Katrina Kaif’s Stunning Performance Win You Over!
Shah Rukh Khan is not going through the best of the phase when it comes to the box office, and he was harping on critics to say nice things about the movie, which didn't happen. Zero stumbled big time on its opening weekend. The movie was expected to break into the Rs 100 crore club at the domestic box office, instead, it just made a little more than half of that.
It is not even that the audiences' tastes have improved a lot thanks to genuine good films like AndhaDhun and Badhaai Ho. Remember 2018 is also the year where Satyameva Jayate, Baaghi 2 and a very manipulative Sanju were also hits. Even 'duds' like Thugs of Hindostan and Race 3 easily entered the Rs 100 crore club within the opening weekend. Why, the Kannada film, KGF Chapter I that released along with Zero, despite being an average film with a run of a mill premise and characters, is having a better buzz at the box office. KGF Chapter I Movie Review: Yash Stands Tall in This Needlessly Stretched Violent Saga.
The movie showed a slight improvement in the collections over the week, especially on Monday and Tuesday (which happened to be Christmas). There also have been positive reviews and reactions trending on social media, and Shah Rukh Khan's fans have been really trying hard to make sure that the movie really is not bad. Some of them, hilariously, even trolled trade analyst Taran Adarsh for his scathing review of Zero, even calling him a paid critic and trending #PaidCriticTaranAdarsh. #PaidCriticTaranAdarsh Trends on Twitter As ‘Zero’ Fans Give Positive Reviews and Trolls Movie Critic for Giving Poor Ratings to SRK Film.
However, the damage has been done by now. Zero has not even made into the Rs 100 crore club in five days, despite a weekend and a holiday. As of now, Zero has collected only Rs 81.32 crore in India. Going by some of the box office reports, Zero's business has gone down once again on Wednesday, with little chance of recovery from hereon.
Even if it makes Rs 100 crore by the end of this week, Zero still won't be profitable. Thanks to the special effects involved in the film, Zero has a rumoured budget of Rs 190 crore. So there's that!
With Ranveer Singh and Sara Ali Khan's Simmba coming out on December 28, Zero's chances of slow business will be further hampered. What's even sadder is that Zero has failed to perform even overseas, which happened to be Shah Rukh Khan's forte.
It is quite unfair to Shah Rukh Khan who has put a lot of efforts in the movie, and a lot of money too. For the writer, Bauua Singh is also one of his best characters and also one of his best performances. Katrina Kaif has also given her career-best performance in the film. The writer is quite positive that, like SRK's 2004 film Swades, in five years or so, people will be praising Zero as an underrated film that was ahead of its time.
However, that cannot change the fact that Shah Rukh Khan, Aanand L Rai and the Zero team could not impress the audiences of 2018. It will be one of the biggest disasters in Shah Rukh Khan's career. Who's to be blamed here? The makers for over-estimating its target audience? SRK, for being an over-indulgent producer? Or the viewers, for not giving the film the chance and rejecting it outright? We can pass the buck but in the end, it is Cinema that suffers!
(The opinions expressed in the above article are of the author and do not reflect the stand or position of LatestLY.)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 26, 2018 05:41 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).