Baywatch received a lot of media attention in India upon its release due to presence of Priyanka Chopra in the movie. However, the eventual fate of the movie was even worse than XXX: Return of Xander Cage which starred Deepika Padukone. The Vin Diesel led action movie could only muster average collections in India. What nobody had expected was the Baywatch will be such a colossal disaster. The movie didn’t open well at all and disappeared from the theaters in week 2. Baywatch is a known name so the result was a bit of shocker for the people involved. However,
if we look closely, we will find a no of reasons behind its debacle. Let’s have a look at 5 such reasons.1. Baywatch isn’t a brand – Let’s accept this that every popular thing isn’t a brand. In this case, Baywatch is fairly well known name but the name didn’t have enough pull to bring audience into the theaters. In its home country if Baywatch couldn’t do that then it was a mistake to expect it to do well in India. People didn’t show any interest into the movie even after a good promotion. Frankly, no one cared.
2. Priyanka Chopra can’t open a movie – Even though Priyanka Chopra is one of the biggest female stars of the country, her biggest opening on her own has been Mary Kom which had earned just around 6 crore on day one. Taking nothing away from her, Bollywood is still a male dominated industry. So, to expect her to deliver similar kind of results for a foreign film in which she isn’t a lead is asking for too much. People are smart these
days and knew that Priyanka is just one of the ensemble casts of the movie. As a result film opened to dismal numbers, one of the lowest ones for Chopra.3. Sex comedies don’t work in India anymore – last year was a clear indication that sex comedies as a sub-genre have run their course in India. All 3 major sex comedies released last year had flopped. Moreover, comedies from Hollywood have hardly worked here in past also. So, in all likelihood, the prospects were not so great even before the release of Baywatch. What nobody expected was that movie will be a giant flop.
4. A certification – There was nothing wrong in giving A certificate to Baywatch, but it ensured that whatever little audience it could have got in absence of adult certificate, also couldn’t catch the film in theater. This was always the risk with this kind of film as if your core audience doesn’t turn up there is nothing there to save your film from crashing & burning at the box office.
5. Scathing reviews – Finally, just like The Mummy, Baywatch received scathing reviews in US as well as India. Unlike former, though, which at least had some action & visuals to offer, Baywatch had nothing else to lure audience into theaters. Thanks to wide penetration of internet in India, people preferred watching original Baywatch series starring Pamela Anderson and skipped the new movie entirely.
