Ramayana pre-sales cross Rs 17 cr; overseas near $3 m

Six days before Ramayana: Part 1 opens on November 5, the epic is already making itself felt at ticket counters. By 11 am on October 30, Indian advance bookings had crossed Rs 17 crore, while overseas pre-sales were nearing $3 million—about Rs 28 crore.

The numbers behind the roar

Trade tracker Sacnilk pegs the India advance total at Rs 17.14 crore. Once blocked seats are set aside, the figure drops to Rs 14.29 crore. Across the country, 3.34 lakh tickets have been sold; without blocked seats, the count stands at 2.75 lakh.

The pace is picking up through the day. Between 6 am and 11 am alone, India sales added Rs 7.25 lakh. Hindi-language markets are leading the charge, with Kannada and Telugu versions building momentum and Tamil and Malayalam listings expected to expand as more cinemas open bookings.

Overseas, the momentum is even more concentrated. North America accounts for close to $1.9 million of the near-$3-million international total—roughly three-fourths. The UK and Ireland have contributed about $268,000, while Australia and New Zealand are at about $248,000. Paid previews scheduled for November 4 are giving North America an extra push.

Why India’s rollout was slow

The domestic advance window opened later than expected because distributors and exhibitors could not immediately agree on revenue sharing. For an event film of this scale, the makers wanted a larger share of opening-week collections.

Per the Sacnilk report, distributors floated two structures:

• A three-week slab: 60% for distributors in Week 1, 50% in Week 2 and 40% in Week 3.
• A flat 55% share for the first 11 consecutive days, after which standard industry slabs would apply.

Exhibitors raised concerns about operating costs, the risk of reserving a large number of screens for one title, and the precedent such terms could set. The commercial deadlock has since eased, and more theatres are expected to open advance sales by 7 pm on October 30 as agreements are reached.

What it means for the film’s opening

Advance sales are an appetite check rather than a final result. Still, crossing Rs 17 crore before the full domestic rollout is a strong signal, particularly for a faith-backed film with enormous expectations riding on it.

The stakes are unusually high. The two Ramayana parts reportedly carry a combined budget of around Rs 4,000 crore. Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, the first part stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita and Yash as Ravana, with music by AR Rahman and Hans Zimmer. For Bollywood and the wider exhibition sector, it is a test of whether a premium Indian epic can pull global pre-sales even when the home market opens late.

Source: India Today