WILL RAMAYANA HOLD WELL IN THE POST-HOLIDAY PERIOD?
Ramayana is doing superbly well at the box office, though the pre-Diwali effect did dent the collections to an extent. The film was released on Thursday, November 5, while Diwali fell on Sunday, November 8. So, it was expected that Ramayana would not collect as per its potential initially. Yet, the expectations were too high and weren’t met.
Ramayana had huge advance bookings, and there was an assumption that spot bookings would further increase collections. However, in the North, people were busy with last-minute shopping, preparations, etc. and they didn’t come out in large numbers. As a result, Ramayana collected Rs. 43 crores on November 5. On Friday, November 6, the film dropped Rs. 33.25 crores, which was normal.
On Saturday, November 9, however, Ramayana went on to collect Rs. 48.75 crores before again dropping to Rs. 34 crores on Sunday, November 8, the day of Diwali. On Monday, however, the film showed its true colours. The earnings jumped to a huge Rs. 91.50 crores. Tuesday was also like a holiday, and that’s when Ramayana collected Rs. 76.50 crores.
The six-day collections of Ramayana are Rs. 327 crores. The first week collections are expected to be around Rs. 410-425 crores. It is less than the industry expectations of Rs. 500 crores in an extended first week. However, the film is still in a good zone.
To begin with, the word of mouth is positive, as proven by the insane jump on Monday. There’s a strong demand to see the film on the big screen and hence, the film will have a long run in cinemas. Secondly, the aforementioned collections are only from India, that too from the Hindi version. The regional versions are doing fairly well. Overseas, Ramayana is on a blockbuster run and may become the biggest overseas grosser (after Dangal), surpassing Pathaan’s collections of $48.50 million.
All eyes will be on the second week, which will again be huge. The competition is limited in the third week as well and hence, it can have a dream run of sorts until November 26.