Baby John tanked? Movie-goers disappointed with poor advance booking of Varun Dhawan-starrer (Details)

As we bid goodbye to 2024 and welcome 2025, this year has been a mixed bag for Bollywood producers and actors. Films that they expected would turn out to be blockbusters failed miserably at the box office, while films that no one thought would do well smashed all box-office records.

With just a few days left for 2024 to end, the last film to be released this year on Christmas Day is Varun Dhawan’s Baby John. The actor is leaving no stone unturned to promote his film. However, Pushpa 2 is still roaring high, and fans are rushing to theatres to book tickets for it.

With Baby John releasing on Christmas Day, trade experts are hoping for a good opening on day 1. However, the film hasn’t had the expected advance bookings or strong start.

According to Sacnilk, Baby John has sold 50,000 tickets and earned over Rs 2 crore by the eve of its release.

In the 6,489 shows of Baby John across India, 49,557 tickets have been sold so far for its opening day, earning Rs 1.46 crore so far. Netizens have pointed out that these numbers are significantly lower than Varun’s earlier films.

Is Baby John a remake of Theri?

Fans believe that no one would want to watch a rehashed South Indian film starring Varun.

A user said, “October was good.”

Another user mentioned, “The name is a turn-off for someone with no context to the film or its promotions.”

A third user commented, “Rehashed South masala doesn’t work anymore, and VD has been rejected by audiences in these roles.”

A fourth user added, “VD has no theatre pull! Even his contemporaries have no theatre pull! Arjun, Sidharth, Tiger!”

Baby John is an adaptation of the 2016 Tamil film Theri, not a remake. It stars Varun Dhawan, Keerthy Suresh, Wamiqa Gabbi, Zara Zyanna, and Jackie Shroff. The film is directed by Kalees and produced by Atlee Kumar.

Puspha 2 vs Baby John

Baby John still faces tough competition from Sukumar’s blockbuster Telugu action thriller Pushpa 2: The Rule. The Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, and Fahadh Faasil-starrer are still dominating the box office across all languages, having earned over Rs 1,000 crore at the domestic box office within 19 days.

Varun Dhawan’s filmography

Varun was last seen in the romantic comedy Jug Jugg Jeeyo in 2022. After that, his creature comedy Bhediya, directed by Amar Kaushik, failed at the box office. His romantic drama Bawaal, directed by Nitesh Tiwari, was released directly on Amazon Prime Video.

He was also seen in Raj & DK’s spy show Citadel: Honey Bunny, which was released last month on Amazon Prime Video. His next two films are Shashank Khaitan’s romantic comedy Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari and his father David Dhawan’s comedy Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai.