The first half ends!! Unsatisfactory but the real show will now begin...

The year of 2014 that had a lot money riding on itself, didn’t quite take the box office by storm in the first half. With number of flops out numbering the successful films with a huge margin the first half was only half satisfying.

With Jai Ho being the first big release of the year, it was expected that Salman’s power would take a flying run, unfortunately the outdated appeal and mixed reviews could only fetch its total to just over 110 crores which was highly ‘Unlike-Salman’. The only film which could make a respectable collection of money was the unexpected Kangana Ranaut starrer Queen that was given a hit verdict. The other films that comfortably acquired the ‘Hit/Superhit’ status in the first half were few but interesting. The surprising Heropanti starring the debutant Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon, another low budget youth targeted Yaariyan, Balaji’s fortune turner ‘Ragini MMS 2’ starring Sunny Leone, Arjun-Alia starrer 2 States and the Akshay Kumar starrer Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. Only 2 States and Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty were able to collect more than 100 crores on the box office. While the Akshay-Sonakshi starrer went on to be the highest grosser so far, films that could marginally make profits were quite a few. Movies like Dedh Ishqiya, Gunday, Main Tera Hero, Hasee Toh Phasee and CityLights were profit makers while Expose, Hawaa Hawaai, Bhootnath Returns, Shaadi ke Side Effects and Highway could only be average grossers. The number of flops have been too many to name in the first half of the year. Some good news came by the end of June when Ek Villain took a historic opening and Humshakals kept collecting despite poor reviews. Both films may end up being hits eventually.

The first half of the year was quite and underperforming but the real phase would begin now. The second half of the year is always considered the most crucial and money spinning time of the year with Eid, Rakhi, Dusshera, Diwali, Christmas, Winters all falling together and attracting a lot a big releases. A lot of biggies will test their fate at the Box Office when Salman’s Kick, Shahrukh’s Happy New Year, Aamir’s Peekay, Ranbir’s Bombay Velvet, Akshay’s It’s Entertainment, Hrithik’s Bang Bang, Ajay’s Singham Returns, Shahid’s Haider would open for the audience. The list is unsurprisingly tempting and Solid but their success would only depend on their appeal and acceptance among the audiences. Let us gear up for the second half of 2014 and leave the first half behind.