In a little phenomenon that has caught many by surprise, Vikram Bhatt's "Haunted 3D: Echoes of the Past" emerged as the box office champion amidst other Hindi-language releases like Imtiaz Ali's "Main Vaapas Aaunga", Kangana Ranaut-starrer "Bharath Bhagya Vidaatha", and Manoj Bajpayee's "Governor".
While many assumed the sequel to the 2011 original wouldn't do higher numbers after the strong Day 1 opening, it has only picked up, collecting a two-day opening weekend figure of Rs 9.35 crore, placing it ahead of even the other low-to-mid-budget horror ventures from the Bhatt camp, such as "1921" (Rs 6.45 crore) and "1920: Horrors of the Heart" (Rs 5.42 crore), indicating strong audience interest in the franchise, despite a 15-year-gap.
Unlike its big-scale contemporaries in the horror genre that eventually ended up blockbusters, "Echoes of the Past", co-directed by Manish P. Chavan, didn't have the advantage of running in national multiplex chains due to some legal hassles. So these numbers are coming from mass-market single screens and B/C centers. This makes its steady day-over-day growth (10.8% on Sunday) even more impressive. With a reported safe budget of Rs 15 crore, it's already on track to hit the break-even point.
The movie, starring Mimoh and Chetna Pande, plays in the same arena as the "1920" horror series (including its spin-offs). "1920: Horrors of the Heart", for example, was made on a budget of Rs 10 crore and collected an estimated Rs 17.35 crore overall. But unlike "Echoes", the former had the privilege of a wide rollout, which makes the new film's collection relatively more remarkable.
"Horrors of the Heart" was considered a box office hit because of low weekday drops and took three weeks to safely pass the finish line. "Echoes", on the other hand, requires only Rs 5.65 crore more to achieve complete budget recovery.
