'The Namesake' slaughtered by '300' at US box-office

Los Angeles, March 14 (IANS) Just last week, headlines in Indian newspapers screamed: "American media goes gaga over 'The Namesake'". The readers were told that Mira Nair's latest venture "is emerging as one of the best reviewed Indian films ever in the US market".

That's all very true. But it didn't help the film much at the box-office during its opening weekend.

In fact, "The Namesake" got slaughtered by the historic battle epic "300", reports www.Hollywood.tv, which not only trounced its competition by selling more tickets than the top 10 opening films combined but also racked up the biggest March opening sale record in the history of the Hollywood film industry.

"The Namesake", a PG-13 rated film starring Tabu, Irrfan Khan and Kal Penn, about an Indian family and their American-born children, didn't stand a chance.

Violent and stylish, "300", the Warner Bros R-rated Spartans versus Persians flick opened in 3,103 theatres across North America, And though the critics said it was more action heavy than literate, it still pulled in a whopping $70 million.

Having to compete against the still popular "Wild Hogs" (#2), "Ghost Rider" (#4) and "Norbit" (#6), and not even making it into the top 20 films of the week, "The Namesake", which had no marketable names among its cast, nevertheless did well on its own terms.

Although it opened in only six theatres in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto, it managed to make an estimated $251,000 in ticket sales, with an average of $41,794 per theatre.

But that's not going to lure Indian audiences from the heavily Indian-populated areas of San Fernando Valley or Orange County, who might want to see the film but wouldn't want to put up with the mind-numbing drive on the often-congested Southland California freeways. For them, Los Angeles is a county too far.

Obviously, the odds for luring the American mainstream audiences to see the movie are even more remote. For the brave few who want to buy tickets ahead of time, before they make the trek, movietickets.com is not giving them any help.

As a film, "The Namesake" is so small, as far as the website is concerned, that tickets simply aren't being made available for purchase online.

For Fox Searchlight, however, Nair's film did generate its biggest opening weekend average of the year. Next week, the distributor plans to open the film in more theatres and, hopefully, given last week's ticket sales, perhaps they will dig into their pockets and put some money into promoting the film.

The million-dollar question is: Why did Fox Searchlight distribute the movie during its opening weekend only in six theatres in North America?

Right now, they're treating Nair's film as though it were some Bollywood extravaganza, which a majority of the mainstream popcorn crowd can't relate to anyway. They are probably waiting for "The Namesake" to prove itself before they take it seriously the way IFC Films did with its low budget box-office hit "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

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The Namesake