Films from two popular franchises clashed at the box-office. One an import from Hollywood, Iron Man 3 and the other from Bollywood, Aashiqui 2, the sequel to the 1990 hit film Aashiqui. While both movies were targetted at the youth, reports suggest that the Bhushan Kumar-Mukesh Bhatt co-production venture would have done even better had Iron Man 3 not released the same day. "We found potential in both the films and hence gave equal number of shows to both Iron Man 3 and Aashiqui 2.

While the Aditya Roy Kapur-Shraddha Kapoor starrer received an average, first weekend all India occupancy of 50 per cent, the Robert Downey Jr starrer Iron Man 3 got 70 per cent all India occupancy in its first weekend," says Girish Wankhede, General Manager, Marketing and Public Relations for Cinemax India Ltd. As per official figures, Iron Man 3 earned an all India collection of Rs 20 crore in its opening weekend. "The response to Iron Man 3 over the weekend is phenomenal.

The film has performed very well in all languages ¯ Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and English. Dubbed versions contributed more than 40 per cent of the overall collections, which reflects the popularity of this franchise all over. The film's phenomenal performance in 3D is also an endorsement of the fact that the medium is gaining tremendous popularity in the market," Gaurav Verma, Director, India Theatrical Distribution, Studios, Disney UTV.

According to trade analyst Amod Mehra, the producers of Aashiqui 2 made good money at the box-office, especially considering the film's low budget of Rs 12 crore. The film received a steady response on Friday and Saturday, but on Sunday the collections jumped by 25 per cent. While, trade analyst Vinod Mirani says that the movie collected Rs 17.75 crore in its opening weekend, the official figures presented by T-Series, suggest that the movie collected Rs 20.50 crore during the period.