Box Office Report: Ek Villain Returns clocks Rs 22 crore in first weekend; Records a decent trend

The Mohit Suri directed Ek Villain Returns has recorded a fair trend in its opening weekend. The romantic thriller, featuring John Abraham, Arjun Kapoor, Disha Patani and Tara Sutaria, has collected Rs 8.35 crore on Sunday to take the opening weekend total to Rs 22 crore. The film opened at Rs 6.65 crore on Friday, followed by a Rs 7 crore Saturday.

On Sunday, the mass belts showed a spike of 30 percent whereas the national multiplex chains went up by 16 percent. In-fact, a circuit like CI showed a near 80% jump as the collections went up from 28 lakh on Friday to 50 lakh on Sunday. There was a possibility of Ek Villain Returns to stay flat through the weekend as the critics reviews were negative, but there was a certain amount of interest in the audience to watch the film, which has resulted in decent footfalls over the weekend. If the music was as soon as Mohit Suri's last directorial, Malang, the weekend might have been higher by another 10 - 15 percent.

The audience has given Ek Villain Returns a chance and the trend from Monday will be a reflection of the audience's word of mouth. A Monday upside of Rs 3.25 crore will put the film in a position to stay healthy until the release of Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhan, whereas a sub 3 crore day will spell a difficult journey ahead. The weekend business of Ek Villain Returns is higher than the lifetime collections of many films featuring much bigger names and this can also be termed a moral victory of sorts in times like these.

Of course, there is a long way ahead for the film to succeed, but given the run of feature films in last year, every small benchmark deserves a mention, as it's a stepping stone for a brighter future. Ek Villain Returns doing some sort of numbers in the opening weekend has also given a breather to the industry, as the audience hasn't ghosted on the Hindi Films, but are being choosy on what they want to watch on the big screen. All eyes on the crucial Monday test now.

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