On Saturday, the deadlock was finally broken, raising hopes for an increased pace of advance bookings in its final week. The floodgates have opened for Ramayana advance booking with less than a week to go for its big release. But back home, the film had been crippled by a deadlock between the distributors and exhibitors, due to which many shows hadn’t opened up.
The Nitesh Tiwari film had its world premiere in Los Angeles earlier this week, which led to a huge jump in pre-sales in the US.
What has helped Ramayana’s case is the pre-sales buzz overseas. In North America, the film will have paid previews on November 4, the eve of its release. The 24 hours after its world premiere saw the film register a 27% jump in collections. By Friday, the film had earned $2.5 million in overseas advance bookings, including over $1 million for the US paid previews alone. This takes the film’s worldwide advance-booking gross to ₹ 40 crore five days before its release.
Advance bookings for Ramayana opened on Dussehra, 15 full days before its global release. But for the next 10 days, only the Hindi version had extensive shows. The distributors had shared two options: a 55% share over the first 11 days, or a three-week slab structure, with 60% going to the distributor in week 1, 50% in week 2, and 40% in week 3. By Saturday, the number of screens for the film had increased to almost 2500. By October 31 afternoon, five days before its release, the film had grossed ₹ 16.5 crore in advance bookings in India, selling over 3 lakh tickets. The Kannada version, which had been limited to a handful of shows, now accounted for 13% of the total gross across 150 screens. The first part is scheduled for worldwide release on November 5, 2026, while the second part is set for Diwali 2027.
And there, too, most of the single-screen and smaller centres had yet to open. The reason was a stalemate between the distributors and exhibitors. Dharma Productions, the film’s distributor in India, had asked for a higher share of theatrical revenue, citing the film’s higher production costs. Additionally, they were wary of setting a precedent, as a settlement could prompt other big films to seek higher revenue. This led to a stalemate, with negotiations continuing for over a week. The Telugu and Tamil shows are also opening up steadily now and should be fully open by Monday. Produced by Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios in collaboration with DNEG and Yash’s Monster Mind Creations, Ramayana is planned as a two-part film. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Ravie Dubey as Lakshman, and Sunny Deol as Lord Hanuman. The films will release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam across India. Sony Pictures will handle global distribution, excluding India, while Dharma Productions will distribute the film in the Hindi-speaking market. The film is also planned for a worldwide IMAX release.
The exhibitors were unwilling to give up higher revenue as they said they were responsible for their costs. Sacnilk reported that on Friday, the deadlock was resolved, even though neither party shared the exact terms agreed upon.
