'The Conjuring: Last Rites' Scares Away 'Baaghi 4' on Opening Day; 'The Bengal Files' Starts Slow

This Friday, we see the releases of two Hindi movies, both belonging to popular franchises. While Tiger Shroff's 'Baaghi 4' takes ahead his big action franchise and sees him in a beast mode, 'The Bengal Files' is the third film from the files trilogy, following 'The Kashmir Files' and 'The Tashkent Files'. It's very clear that 'Baaghi 4' will be leading over the 'The Bengal Files' as far as box office is concerned. The former is a massy actioner which will largely target the single screens while 'The Bengal Files' will grow perhaps with word of mouth, at niche centres. Moreover, the film has been banned in West Bengal and that is its strongest market. Thus, the opening of this Vivek Agnihotri directorial is expected to be weak. Meanwhile, the Tiger Shroff, Sanjay Dutt starrer has begun on a decent note. According to Sacnilk, till afternoon, the film has made Rs 5.93crore. Meanwhile, 'The Bengal Files' collected Rs 55 lakh till the same time. But it's the Hollywood franchise film, 'The Conjuring: Last Rites' which is dominating over both of them. Till the same time, the collection of Conjuring is Rs 9.54 crore. Thus, clearly, this one is dominating over the other two. The horror franchise outing has opened strongly and is poised for a solid run. Its advance bookings were among the highest seen recently, second only to 'Chhaava' among Hindi films. Of course, The Conjuring – Last Rights benefits from a significant contribution from southern markets, unlike Chhaava, according to Box Office India. The same trade portal also added that while 'Baaghi 4' may get a decent day 1 opening number, there are a lot of block bookings as well. Eventually, these are considered 'manufactured box office' numbers which have become so rampant in the industry. Thus, eventually, the numbers may not show in the longer run if they are not genuine.At the moment, it seems like the Hollywood horror franchise is dominating over these two Hindi releases but the word of mouth and the upcoming weekend numbers will play a crucial role in deciding, which film won over the others.