Box office: 'Merry Christmas' witnesses jump on second day
What's the story
Director Sriram Raghavan's sixth feature film in his career, Merry Christmas, was released on Friday after encountering a round of delays.
Headlined by Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi, it is a story of deceit, betrayal, and cold-blooded revenge.
Owing to Raghavan's repute, the film seems to be growing at the box office gradually and, so far, has raked in nearly Rs. 6 crore.
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Looking at 'Merry Christmas' in numbers
Per trade tracker Sacnilk, the film minted Rs. 3.45cr on Saturday, with an overall 18.15% Hindi occupancy and 26.48% Tamil occupancy.
The Hindi version received the maximum turnout during the night shows (22.84%), followed by the evening shows (21.67%).
Merry Christmas was filmed and released in Hindi and Tamil to cater to the North Indian belt and Kollywood Sethupathi's home state.
Competition
Film has a tough battle to fight
MC faces intense competition with a number of films that have been released on the occasion of Makara Sankranti/Pongal.
These include Ayalaan, HanuMan, Guntur Kaaram, Captain Miller, Saindhav (Saturday release), and Naa Saami Ranga (Sunday release).
Dhanush's Captain Miller has been consistently doing well, while Mahesh Babu's GK had a bombastic opening but fizzled on day two.
Merry Christmas is now dependent on word-of-mouth.
Story
This is what happens in 'Merry Christmas'
The film—which runs for over two hours—is about Maria (Kaif) and Albert's (Sethupathi) escapades on Christmas Eve.
Two people brought together as much by destiny as by choice, they spark an immediate friendship—even hinting at a possible romance—until Maria's husband Jerome is found "murdered," and everything goes haywire.
Sanjay Kapoor, Ashwini Kalsekar, and Vinay Pathak appear in supporting roles.
On actors
Raghavan's experience with both actors
Speaking about Merry Christmas's lead actors, Raghavan earlier told India Today, "[Kaif] is an extremely hardworking actor. She is meticulous and will chew your brain talking about the hows and whys of the scene."
"[Sethupathi] is the opposite. He would come up with suggestions about how his character could say something differently or react...I am more than welcoming of such inputs," he added.