The slogan to the film "99" may be "Part Fact, Part Fiction, Pure Fun" but the movie theatres were only part full to go see this movie this past weekend.  The movie starring Kunal Khemu only opened to 10-15% occupancy in theatres.  The people came out a little bit more over the weekend as the movie rose to 40-45% occupancy before that number took a nosedive once the work week started again.

"99" took a bold chance at releasing this movie during the much-talked about revenue sharing impasse by the producers' forum.  Under strict orders, no new movies were supposed to hit theaters until the matter was resolved.  "99" decided to take advantage of seemingly being the only show in town, but they found out the hard way that people were finding other ways to spend their time.

One of those alternatives was Marathi films.  They capitalized on Bollywood's stalemate as "Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy" took in over Rs 9 crore in its sixth week, making it the highest grossing Marathi film ever.  "Gallit Gondhal Dillit Mujra" has raked in over Rs 2 crore in 2 weeks.  The other alleged cause for the box office demise of "99": the IPL.  Fans stayed at home for the most part to watch cricket all weekend, making it tough for people to shell out the cash to go see "99." 

Veteran film trade analyst Amar Solanki said, "99 is a good entertainer which keeps you in splits. It's unfortunate that the film has opened so low. The main reasons can be the lack of star value, and the IPL matches. So, even if the film smartly uses cricket as its backdrop, the real IPL games are proving more exciting than the film."

Did you guys see "99?"  Was the theater as empty as the reports are saying?  Do you think the film should have been released after the IPL games ended?  Drop us a comment with your thoughts.