Ramayana: Part 1 advance bookings cross Rs 115 crore worldwide as overseas demand outpaces India
Two days before its 5 November release, Ramayana: Part 1 has passed Rs 115 crore in worldwide opening-weekend advance bookings, driven by overseas pre-sales while its India opening-day numbers trail the year’s biggest releases.
Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana: Part 1 has crossed Rs 115 crore in worldwide advance bookings for its opening weekend, two days ahead of its theatrical release on 5 November. The milestone, tracked by industry tracker Sacnilk and reported on 3 November, underlines the scale of expectation around one of the most expensive and closely watched Indian films of the year.
The headline number, however, tells two different stories. Overseas pre-sales have been the engine of the total, contributing more than Rs 40 crore, while the film’s opening-day advance bookings inside India, at Rs 32.59 crore as of noon on 3 November, sit well behind the marks set by this year’s biggest openers.
In India, the opening-day figure was built on the sale of 8.16 lakh tickets across 20,159 shows, at an overall occupancy of about 18 per cent, according to Sacnilk. Excluding blocked seats, the day-one gross stands at Rs 27.34 crore from 6.80 lakh tickets and an occupancy of about 15 per cent, with around 50 shows already reported houseful.
Across the first four days on sale, domestic advance bookings have climbed to Rs 75.56 crore — Rs 60.09 crore without blocked seats — from 19.13 lakh tickets spread over 61,835 shows. Those numbers suggest steady rather than explosive demand at home: strong for most releases, but modest next to the records the trade had been discussing for a production of this size.
North America has emerged as the film’s strongest overseas market. Paid premieres scheduled for 4 November, a day ahead of the general release, had already generated more than $1.20 million, roughly Rs 11.37 crore, while pre-sales in the United States for the full opening weekend were running at close to $3 million, about Rs 28.45 crore.
The producers are reportedly targeting an overseas opening weekend of more than $20 million, around Rs 189.62 crore. Reaching that figure may depend less on the advance audience, which has already committed, and more on walk-in trade and word of mouth once the first reviews and audience reactions land.
The domestic comparisons explain the caution in trade coverage. Yash’s Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups recorded Rs 73.43 crore in opening-day advance bookings, Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar 2 took Rs 62.43 crore, and Rajinikanth’s Jailer 2 collected Rs 41.48 crore — each comfortably ahead of Ramayana’s day-one pre-sales in India, even though its global total has already passed Rs 115 crore.
The film itself is a large-scale retelling of the Ramayana, planned as a two-part production. Ranbir Kapoor plays Rama, with Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Ravi Dubey as Lakshmana and Sunny Deol as Hanuman. It is bankrolled by Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios together with Yash’s Monster Mind Creations, and its music brings together Hans Zimmer and A. R. Rahman.
Part 1 opens worldwide on 5 November, timed for the Diwali festive period, in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. The second part is planned for Diwali 2027, which means the commercial and critical reception of this first chapter may shape expectations — and marketing — for the conclusion more than a year from now.
The final day of advance booking, together with the 4 November premieres, will set the tone for the opening. If the overseas momentum holds and domestic sales accelerate in the last hours, the film could still post a formidable global weekend; if word of mouth is mixed, the gap between its worldwide pre-sales and its home-market start may become the story. Either way, the opening weekend will be read as the first real verdict on the two-part gamble.
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