The January jinx seems to have struck tinseltown with the latest movie releases eliciting a poor response. Trade pundits label last weekend business as "extremely dull" with Juhi Chawla and Shabana Azmi-starrer 'Chalk N Duster' and four Hollywood films failing to find takers.

"The going gets tough for small-budget, meaningful films sans 'heroes' when they don't get entertainment tax exemptions. And Chalk N Duster met with the same fate. It was a no-show at several places right from day one. The box-office performance of Hollywood releases - 'The Danish Girl', 'The 33', 'The Hateful Eight' and 'Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip' - too was below the mark," says trade expert Amod Mehra.

The collections of holdover release 'Wazir', which had slumped during the week, picked up over the weekend in the face of near-zero competition. Sources say the thriller starring Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar has broken even. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says, "It has done well in big cities and been accepted by its target audience. We will have to wait for another week to assess if it has broken the January jinx."

All eyes are now on this Friday's releases and 2016's first BO clash - Akshay Kumar's 'Airlift' and 'Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3', billed as Bollywood's first porn-com - to break the cruel curse of January.


BO stars
Rs 1cr
'Chalk N Duster' (opening weekend)

Rs 15.33cr
'Wazir' (week 2; total: R36.34 crore)