This clearly wasn't Priyadarshan's week, at least as long as the overseas box office is concerned.
For, it was his rival Neeraj Vohra, who directed the sequel of Priyan's hit comedy Hera Pheri, who had the last laugh.
Akshay Kumar's loyal fans abroad stood by him once again helping the Vohra's comedy Phir Hera Pheri triumph over Priyan's new movie, Chup Chup Ke, which released on the same day.
Priyan had directed the first Hera Pheri three years ago and had seen it become one of the biggest hits of the year.
Fans abroad preferred the Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty and Bipasha Basu comedy to Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapur's Chup Chup Ke which had a ho-hum opening on both sides of the Atlantic.
Some exhibitors think Akshay is infallible abroad.
Even his Humko Deewane Kar Gaye, which was a dud in India, grossed about $1 million in the UK and North America.
As one distributor, whose film lost heavily to an Akshay film recently, said: You can publish a phone directory with just his name and yet, it would be a bestseller. In the United Kingdom Dosti: Friends Forever featuring Akshay (with Bobby Deol and Kareena) grossed a mighty $1.5 million six months ago, outbeating its decent American gross by nearly $1 million.
It is not that Phir Hera Pheri is a huge hit like the Aamir Khan-Kajol starrer Fanaa, which in three weeks, has grossed $3.7 million in the UK and North America but the Akshay Kumar comedy could earn a combined $1 million, at least 40 percent more than the projected gross for Chup Chup Ke.
While Phir Hera Pheri grossed $230,000 over the weekend and took the eighth place on the UK box office chart, Chup Chup Ke pocketed about $146,000 at the 11th position, trailing right behind Fanaa with $160,000.
In North America, the box office numbers for the Akshay Kumar film were not available but trade sources believe it took much more than the anemic $110,000 Chup Chup Ke took. But the distributors of the latter movie can take some small satisfaction that the new film did about 30 percent more business in the UK and North America than 36 China Town, the recent Kareena and Shahid movie.
While Fanaa is still going strong, and its North American gross reaching $1.7 million, Deepa Mehta's art-house hit Water still remains to be the film to be beaten for the Bollywood box-office crown. Factoring its Canadian gross, the period film starring John Abraham and Lisa Rai has taken in a strong $3.8 million. The next highest Hindi language grosser in the last 12 months is the Aamir Khan hit Rang De Basanti which ended its North American run with a telling $2.2 million.
In America, where Water is still showing on some 80 screens, the well-reviewed film is going to be around for at least one month.
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