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The Hindi movie Baby John headlined by Indian actor Varun Dhawan released on Christmas Day December 25 registering an unimpressive worldwide gross opening for the new action packed film. Baby John directed by Kalees grossed a low of 2 million dollars globally after its initial opening day for the highly anticipated Varun Dhawan production. The film took in around 1.5 million dollars on the first Wednesday of its India launch in ticket revenues across all major Bollywood theaters.
Within its first three days after releasing in global theaters Baby John collected just over 3.2 million dollars. The movie garnered a gross 2.4 million dollars in India by Friday demonstrating very slow growth in initial collections. Positive viewer reviews on social platforms created some hype although direct box office competition with Disney’s Mufasa The Lion King and Allu Arjun’s Pushpa 2 The Rule movie will be quite challenging for Baby John over coming Saturday and Sunday sales according to movie analysts. Box office for Baby John has been a significant focus as audiences show initial feelings for new Bollywood movie on initial run for theaters.
Baby John only scored a small 1.5 million dollar opening net total in India and 1.7 million dollars gross revenue on Christmas day a traditionally strong opening for most theatrical launches in past years. Global opening day performance of Baby John also registered just around 2 million dollars creating further doubts for movie’s earning potential. Baby John achieved 1.9 million in India 1.9 million and 2.7 million across all global box offices. By third day movie collections improved slightly showing a 3.2 million in gross revenue globally after three days of release despite early competition from other large films currently showing in theaters across world.
The release of Pushpa 2 The Rule starring Allu Arjun created immense box office revenue despite current legal troubles affecting actor and publicity. Pushpa 2 The Rule grossed around 200 million dollars worldwide and continues to draw large audiences at movie theaters in India which cuts into potential markets that are available for new movies. Disney’s Mufasa The Lion King presented major box office threats to the overall potential of Baby John's commercial success owing to Barry Jenkins Hollywood directed movie gaining popularity within India and surrounding nations. New Kannada thriller movie Max starring Kiccha Sudeep scored impressive earnings taking over 1.2 million on its first day in global ticket sales for Kannada movie . Max grew to a strong 2 million dollars total after three days release in the Kannada market only making further competition with the release of Baby John across India during holiday season.
Director Atlee known for Vijay-starring Theri in 2016 also directed an adaptation of Tamil thriller into a Hindi format with his movie Baby John. The original “Theri” grossed around 5 million for initial movie sales. Atlee with Sumit Arora and Kalees worked as co writers on this production. Jackie Shroff Rajpal Yadav Wamiqa Gabbi Keerthy Suresh and Sheeba Chadhdha also feature in crucial acting roles for this film. The action film of Baby John shows a cop drawn back to crime and violence protecting family. Varun Dhawan is portrayed as former cop in action thriller and Jackie Shroff portrays antagonist Nanaji in crime thriller setting.
Baby John attempts to use several tropes including big action choreography sequences and loud back ground music combined with some dancing numbers designed for local audiences but has shown to mostly fail despite use of standard Bollywood strategies. Varun Dhawan receives huge star intro segments and background scoring previously common among Southern Indian megastars. Varun Dhawan despite acting convincingly in serious and quiet scenes does not seem to show his best work as he had previously done in Badlapur directed by Sriram Ramghavan or October movie that was directed by Shoojit Sircar showing inconsistency in performance. Varun Dhawan often comes across as far too youthful in the role as shown across major critic reviews.
Jackie Shroff effectively demonstrates his expertise in portrayal of villainous Nanaji as character is further developed by his distinct physique adding further intensity on screen. Rajpal Yadav acting as close friend and assistant for Varun Dhawan gives moments of pure genius and on screen skill. All female leads were portrayed with minimal development and without any significant roles with action sequences or importance. Main plot points reveal the primary conflict is fighting against trafficking mafia. Critics agree that more effort should have gone to give better depth to female characters across board.