The makers of a film decide to make more films in the series only when the first one does well. The idea is to cash in on the popularity of the first film and the second or the subsequent films in the franchise are expected to do better than the first one. In India, one has seen the examples of several films which are being made into a franchise despite having limited success at the box-office. ‘Commando’ (2013) was an average success but it helped in establishing Vidyut Jammwal as an action hero. Perhaps, that prompted the makers to take the franchise forward.
‘Commando’ (2017) collected more than ‘Commando’ at the box-office but was declared a flop in the final tally as the cost of production was much higher. Interestingly, the film was a huge success on television. Usually, mass-oriented action films find a huge audience on TV, regardless of whether the film worked at the box-office or not.
‘Commando 3’, directed by Aditya Datt, is more similar to ‘Commando 2’ which was shot abroad and tried to emulate the feel of an international film. The film is carrying a low buzz and there is a chance that it will open less than ‘Commando 2’ (Rs. 21.61 crore) or even ‘Commando’ (Rs. 19.89 crore). The film will be heavily dependent on word-of-mouth to help it sail through.
The other release of the week is ‘Hotel Mumbai’ which is based on 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. The film is streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video in several countries and hence, has been watched by a lot of people. Though the film is carrying good reports, there is little awareness about it and because of that the opening is expected to be very low – in the range of a few lakhs.