Ramayana Part 1, directed by Nitesh Tiwari and starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sai Pallavi and Yash, has sold Rs 47.46 crore in advance bookings for Saturday, 7 November, its third day in cinemas. The figure is the gross including seats blocked by cinemas, and without those seats it stands at Rs 41.18 crore. The advance sales cover 13.01 lakh tickets booked across 25,110 shows at 3,000 cinemas in 1,086 cities. The data was finalised at 6 AM on Saturday, and bookings had risen by Rs 2.46 crore in the six hours before that. The Hindi version accounts for most of the advance sales. It has taken Rs 35.95 crore, or 76 per cent of the total, from 8.10 lakh tickets across 20,782 shows. The average ticket price for the Hindi version is Rs 444, well above the all-India average of Rs 365.
Hindi leads, 3D ahead of 2D
Three-dimensional shows are drawing more advance sales than two-dimensional ones. Standard 3D shows have brought in Rs 28.07 crore against Rs 13.05 crore for standard 2D, a gap that shows audiences are choosing the bigger format for this film. Premium formats, including IMAX, 4DX, Dolby Cinema, ICE and EPIQ, hold 13 per cent of the gross at Rs 6.16 crore, from only 2 per cent of the shows. The premium share underlines how much of the demand is for the film as a big-screen event. Among the other languages, Telugu has taken Rs 4.33 crore from 2.32 lakh tickets, Kannada Rs 4.08 crore from 1.09 lakh tickets, Tamil Rs 1.86 crore from 89,116 tickets and Malayalam Rs 1.25 crore from 62,039 tickets.
Bengaluru tops the cities
Bengaluru is the top city for Saturday advance bookings at Rs 6.41 crore, followed by Mumbai at Rs 5.71 crore and the National Capital Region at Rs 5.26 crore. The top ten cities together hold 58 per cent of the gross. Maharashtra is the top state at Rs 9.14 crore, followed by Karnataka at Rs 8.17 crore and Delhi at Rs 5.26 crore. The top ten states hold 83 per cent of the advance gross. Occupancy for Saturday stood at 23 per cent at the 6 AM snapshot, with 163 housefull shows and 56 shows fully sold out. Chennai had the highest occupancy among major cities at 68 per cent, with 34 housefull shows.
A strong Saturday after a Friday dip
The advance figure comes after the film's second day dipped. Ramayana Part 1 earned Rs 64.85 crore net in India on day one and Rs 48.05 crore net on day two, a fall of 25.9 per cent, taking its two-day India net total to Rs 112.90 crore and its worldwide gross to Rs 221.05 crore. Saturday's advance sales are nearly double the level at which Friday's advance bookings closed, which stood at Rs 25.16 crore on the same basis. The jump suggests the weekend is bringing audiences back after the Friday slide. By late morning, the live estimate for Saturday's collections stood at Rs 12.61 crore net. That figure will keep moving through the day as walk-in audiences add to the advance sales.
The weekend test
Sunday brings a different challenge, with Lakshmi Puja falling in the evening, when cinemas would ordinarily count on some of their busiest shows. How the film holds on Sunday will say more about its run than Saturday's advance figure alone. Before release, Miraj Entertainment chief operating officer Sameer Munshi had said Rs 1,000 crore was within reach, and had pencilled in a Rs 75 to 80 crore India net opening, higher than the Rs 64.85 crore the film actually tracked on its first day. For now, the Saturday advance sales are the clearest sign that the film's opening weekend is gathering pace. The question is whether the walk-in audience follows the advance buyers through the rest of the weekend.
