Ramayana is still two days from its first show, but the box office race has already produced a number that puts it in rare company. The Nitesh Tiwari epic crossed ₹105 crore in worldwide advance bookings by Tuesday morning, with India alone contributing ₹58 crore and nearly 15 lakh tickets sold.
Crossing ₹100 crore in advance bookings remains an extremely small club in Indian cinema. Before Ramayana, only Baahubali 2, RRR, Pushpa 2 and Dhurandhar 2 had managed it. The milestone matters because pre-sales are the clearest early signal of how wide and deep an opening will be.
Why the surge came late
Advance sales opened on Dussehra, 15 full days before release, but the pace plateaued after the first day. For about ten days, most of the open shows were for the Hindi version, because distributor Dharma Productions was still negotiating a higher revenue share with exhibitors for single screens and smaller centres.
That stalemate ended last Friday, and screens were added quickly over the weekend. By Tuesday morning, more than 5,000 screens were open, including about 1,500 added in the previous 24 hours. The jump in advance sales followed almost immediately.
The numbers behind the milestone
- ₹105 crore in worldwide advance bookings by November 3
- ₹58 crore from India, with opening day alone at ₹27 crore
- ₹25 crore already booked for days two and three
- 15 lakh tickets sold in India
- $5 million in overseas advance bookings
What stands out is that demand is not limited to Friday. The second and third days have already chipped in ₹25 crore, and Sunday is catching up as more shows open.
Premium formats do the heavy lifting
IMAX and other premium formats are converting at an unusually high rate. They account for almost one-fourth of total advance sales despite holding just 4% of screens. In North America, paid previews on November 4 have already sold more than $1.5 million, and the 24 hours after the world premiere brought a 27% jump in collections.
What it means for moviegoers
For audiences, the takeaway is practical: if you want a premium or IMAX seat this weekend, the best inventory is going early. Screens expanded only recently, and the opening weekend is selling like a first day, which means the usual last-minute window may be thinner than normal.
Ramayana stars Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi, Yash, Ravie Dubey and Sunny Deol, and is planned as a two-part film. The first part arrives in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam on November 5, with the second part scheduled for Diwali 2027.
Source: Hindustan Times
