Mission Mangal Vs Batla House: Akshay's Film Steady, John's Movie Inches Closer to Rs 100-cr Mark

This year’s Independence Day fell on a long weekend and thus saw two big movies bumping heads at the box office. One was Akshay Kumar’s Mission Mangal and the other being John Abraham’s Batla House. While both the movies had a good amount of buzz before its release, the multi-starrer Mission Mangal certainly had the bigger fill, in terms of box office collection (Rs 96.50 crore), clocking it Akshay’s biggest weekend opener after 2.0 (Rs 95 crore) and Kesari (Rs 78.07 crore).

Comparisons of both the movies were being drawn, even before the releases. While Akshay and John are known to share a good friendly-bond and have even worked as co-actors on various projects, this time the two were seen competing with each other, with a movie with a social cause in its plot and both being based on true events. Also, John has seemingly been eyeing patriotic movies, following the footsteps of his dear friend, his last movies being Parmanu: The Story Of Pokhran, and Romeo Akbar Walter.

Mission Mangal is based on Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Mars Orbiter Mission. The movie had an interesting ensemble of Vidya Balan, Sonakshi Sinha, Nithya Menen, Taapsee Pannu, Kirthi Kulhari, Sharman Joshi. Made on a budget of Rs 32 crores, the movie is currently galloping towards the Rs 200 crore club.

On the other hand, Batla House is based on Delhi’s Batla House encounter of the 19^th September 2018, leading up to the encounter of two alleged Indian Mujahideen terrorists. The movie starred Mrunal Thakur in the female lead, with Ravi Kishan, Rajesh Sharma and others in supporting roles. The movie’s production cost is estimated to be Rs 47 crore and has minted Rs 93 crores, on its 15^th day. Batla House is likely to cross the ‘esteemed’ Rs 100-crore club by the weekend.

The approximate number of screens for Mission Mangal is reported to be 3,250 in its first week, with a 15% reduction in the second one, bringing it down to 2700-2800 (approx). John’s Batla House had 2,400 screens (approx) in its first week and saw a 35% fall in the second, bringing it down to 1,500-1,600. Even though Batla House seems to be at half of the collection that Mission Mangal has made, but considering the screen space, both the movies have done a decent business at the box office.

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