‘Cirkus’ crashes with box office earnings of ₹32 crore

Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus has crashed at the box office with collections of Rs. 32.22 crore at last count. According to trade website Box Office India, the Ranveer Singh-starrer couldn’t even benefit from the Christmas and new year holiday period with Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam 2, released over a month ago, managing better collections.

The year-end festive period has also performed below par, like the Diwali, Independence Day and Eid holidays in 2022. James Cameron’s Avatar- The Way of Water that has crossed the Rs. 300 crore mark, too could have done better in Hindi-speaking circuits but the film has helped bolster collections in the new year period, nevertheless.

Cirkus, the major Bollywood release for Christmas, was banking on the director Shetty’s reputation for mass-market commercial entertainers driven by his last release Sooryavanshi, but lead star Ranveer Singh isn’t enjoying a great run at the box office, with his last two films Jayeshbhai Jordaar and ‘83 (last year’s Christmas release) having failed to set the cash registers ringing.

While there was some hope that people would ultimately trickle in given the holiday period, trade experts said audiences are not obligated to spend money on a movie they aren’t excited by, the release of Akshay Kumar’s Ram Setu and Sidharth Malhotra-starrer Thank God for the Diwali weekend was proof of the same. Lead actor Singh’s last release ’83 had managed to hog enough screens last Christmas despite the success of Spider-Man: No Way Home and Allu Arjun’s Pushpa- The Rise: Part One. However, this was not something Cirkus was able to manage given Disney’s push for Avatar.

According to trade website Box Office India, advances of Cirkus were comparable with below par box office performers like Raksha Bandhan and Bhediya.