Guest Post is written by Bobby Sidhu.

Twitter at You can follow him onat https://twitter.com/BobbyS_BO





The box office has seen a huge turnaround in the last year. Films featuring non-superstars such as Raazi, Stree, Badhaai Ho, and the recently released URI have all weaved magic at the box office, whereas films of superstars such as Race 3, Thugs of Hindostan, and Zero have all bombed at the box office. Of course, the big difference was that the films in the first category were all considered to be good films, whereas the films in the second category (read: the Khan films) were all considered to be bad films!







This week’s release, Kangana Ranaut’s Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, is a film that will belong to the first category: it may not have any superstar in its lead cast, but the film will do magical business at the box office!







Pre-release Buzz: Despite a terrific response from viewers towards the theatrical trailer, it has to be said that the overall buzz for the film is low. As such, it can be expected that the film will take a poor opening in the morning shows on Friday at the box office.

Predicted public WOM (Word of Mouth): This is what will work immensely in the film’s favor! I’m predicting that the film will carry outstanding reports amongst the paying public. So, despite a poor opening, I feel that the film will show a phenomenal trend and go on to be a major winner at the box office. As a matter of fact, I feel that the extremely positive WOM will come into play during the post-morning shows on day one itself, which will change a poor opening day collection into a decent opening day collection. Manikarna will also get advantage of the Republic Day holiday on Saturday to boost the film's collections.





The film has a one week free-run until Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga releases on February 1, which will take some screen space from Manikarnika.









My Box Office Predictions for Manikarnika:





Lifetime Collections: 175 crore nett



