Ramayana Part One closed its global advance bookings at Rs. 143.50 crore. This ranks as the second biggest advance ever for a Bollywood film. While the Hindi version earned Rs. 57.50 crore, the film faces a tough start due to the pre-Diwali period, which is a slow time for business.
Ramayana Part One has closed its advances at Rs. 143.50 crore approx globally with roughly an even split domestically and overseas of Rs. 71 crore and Rs. 72.50 crore approx respectively. This ranks as the second biggest advance ever for a Bollywood film, just behind Dhurandhar: The Revenge, which had an advance of over Rs. 250 crore for its opening weekend.
Breaking down the Indian presales, the Hindi version accounts for Rs. 57.50 crore (Rs. 48 crore Nett) approx while the South dubbed version brings in Rs. 13.50 crore approx. Within that, the opening day advance for Hindi is Rs. 23.50 crore Nett, which is amongst the top ten biggest advances of all time. While that may not match the high expectations that are there from the film, that is down to the release timing, as the film had to battle pre-Diwali, which is a low time for the Hindi box office.
At this point, the film is looking to open around Rs. 55-60 crore nett in Hindi and another Rs. 15 crore nett or so in the dubbed versions. From there, it would be a seesaw trend for the next five days, as it will be dropping one day and then jumping the next. Monday will be the biggest day of the run, as the Hindi circuits will come in full force after the Diwali festivities, and Monday business will be what really sets the tone for what the film can do.
Overseas, the film has seen the best response in the United States, where it has amassed USD 4.40 million for the weekend so far. This ranks as the second-best presales ever for a Bollywood film, trailing just Dhurandhar: The Revenge and more than double the next best, Jawan and Pathaan. While other places were tracking similarly strong levels a week ago, bookings have moderated in recent days and are now broadly in line with, or in some territories, slightly behind, Jawan and Pathaan. Even so, the film remains on course for an opening weekend of over USD 20 million, although the aim was probably more around USD 25-30 million considering, well, the scale of the film and the P&A spend by Sony.
The Territory Wise Presales Breakdown for Ramayana: Part One is as follows:
NOTE: There may be some higher advance numbers going around, but those aren't COLLECTIONS. Those numbers are basically scraped data from ticket booking sites, which includes blocked seats. Furthermore, the GROSS amount they arrive at uses ticket prices at face value, which isn't how the box office is reported, as most of these tickets are purchased on passes, which lowers the Average Ticket Price. All this leads to inflated numbers. STAY TUNED for COLLECTIONS updates here.