Yash’s Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups is now just six days away from its worldwide release, but the advance bookings are not exactly setting the box office on fire.
The film’s US premiere advance sales currently stand at around $146K from 6,787 tickets. With only six days left for the premieres, that is still not a particularly encouraging number. The response is nowhere close to what one would expect from a film carrying the KGF star with huge global ambitions.
And the bigger discussion is now happening around the Gulf market.
Toxic was originally scheduled for March 19 and was later pushed to June 4, with the makers citing uncertainty and instability in the Middle East. The Gulf is an extremely important overseas market for pan-Indian films.
The postponement created an impression that the team was being extremely careful about protecting the film’s Gulf business. There was even significant anticipation that Toxic would make a historic start in the Middle East once the situation improved. But the current Gulf booking trend is just about so-so.
That has given social media users a chance to troll Yash. Some are now asking a rather uncomfortable question: If the Gulf market was one of the major reasons for pushing the film, where is the massive demand? The trolls are already suggesting that the Middle East reason may have been nothing more than an excuse to avoid a clash with a juggernaut like Dhurandhar 2.
The film is also preparing for a major Telugu pre-release event in Hyderabad on August 22. The event is scheduled to take place at Malla Reddy University, with Yash and the Toxic team expected to attend.
It will be interesting to see whether any top Tollywood celebrities turn up for the event. Hyderabad is an important market for Toxic, particularly because Yash has built a strong following among Telugu audiences after KGF.
The Hyderabad event could therefore be an important opportunity for the team to generate some fresh excitement just before the nationwide bookings gather momentum.
The next six days will tell us whether this is simply a slow start before a last-minute explosion or whether Toxic is struggling big time to convert Yash’s KGF stardom into ticket sales.
