Varun Dhawan's 'Baby John' a complete dud at box office, loses 2.5k shows in a week: Report

Varun Dhawan-led action-thriller Baby John has proven to be a dud at the box office despite releasing on Christmas 2024. The film logged a subpar opening at ₹11.25 crore at the India box office and has seen a steady decline in its daily business since. 

The film's box office run in India has been so bad that the film's shows were reduced by 2,500 within just a week of its release. The film logged an overall occupancy of 22.38 per cent in 1,800 shows on the New Year Day. 

Baby John day 8 box office collection 

• Day 1: ₹11.25 crore
• Day 2: ₹4.75 crore
• Day 3: ₹3.65 crore
• Day 4: ₹4.25 crore
• Day 5: ₹4.75 crore 
• Day 6: ₹1.85 crore
• Day 7: ₹2.15 crore
• Day 8: ~₹2.75 crore

Total box office collection: ₹35.40 crore

Source: Sacnilk

Made at a budget of around ₹160 crore, Baby John has failed to cross the ₹50 crore mark within 8 days of its release. Varun Dhawan's latest film is likely to make only around ₹60 crore in its lifetime, as per film trade experts. 

Moreover, the film is now facing competition from Unni Mukundan-led actioner Marco. The film's Hindi version has replaced Baby John across several film theatres in India due to a lack of footfalls, as per a report in Bollywood Hungama. 

Commenting on the rage around Marco, an exhibitor told the entertainment news portal: "There's a curiosity to see it as many are claiming that Sandeep Reddy Vanga's ultra-violent film Animal, looks like a kiddie movie, in front of Marco because of its excessive violent scenes. Hence, there's a demand for it and Baby John's shows are being replaced with that of Marco and also films like Pushpa 2 and Mufasa: The Lion King."

Popular theatres in Mumbai have decided to cut the shows of Varun Dhawan's latest film. These include MovieMax Wonder Mall in Thane, which will play 5 shows of Marco's Hindi version and 3 for Baby John. 

In Mumbai's popular G7 multiplex, Baby John was playing in the 1000-seater Gaiety cinema hall and also had 2 shows in Gossip. The film has now been shifted to Galaxy, which has around 200 seats less than Gaiety whereas Pushpa 2 is back in Gaiety.

Directed by Kalees, Baby John is the official remake of the 2016 Tamil film Theri. The film focuses on a senior police officer who transforms and travels to different places to save his family. 

The film stars Varun Dhawan, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi, Jackie Shroff and Rajpal Yadav in significant roles.