Since the pandemic, Akshay Kumar’s box office appeal has significantly declined.
In the past four years, he has delivered twelve resounding flops and disasters. Now, his latest film, Sarfira, appears to be heading toward becoming his thirteenth flop, as indicated by the poor advance bookings.
Recent reports highlight that Sarfira’s advance booking is dismal. By Thursday noon, only 4,000 tickets had been sold across the top three national chains – PVR, Inox, and Cinepolis.
Industry insiders suggest that more than half of these tickets are self-bookings or corporate bookings by the production house to save some reputation of their hero and film.
Another shocking fact is that Sarfira hasn’t even sold 100 tickets in Hyderabad, a city known for its love of movies.
This weak advance booking means Sarfira is likely to struggle to surpass the opening day earnings of Akshay’s Selfiee (Rs 2 crore) and Mission Raniganj (Rs 2.5 crore).
It also suggests that Sarfira won’t outdo the opening day figures of smaller recent releases like Rajkummar Rao’s Srikanth (Rs 2.5 crore) and the horror-comedy Munjya (Rs 4 crore).
One reason for the lack of interest could be that Sarfira is a remake, and audiences might prefer watching the original version available on OTT platforms for free.
Despite this, Akshay Kumar’s star power should ideally ensure a decent opening, at least in the double digits. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case for his recent films.
Here’s hoping Akshay Kumar makes a strong comeback soon and starts delivering hits like he did from 2016 to 2019.
