After the best Monday in Indian cinema history, Ramayana followed it up with the best Tuesday ever: another red-letter day where the film earned close to ₹ 100 crore net in India and over ₹ 160 crore gross worldwide. This has propelled the Nitesh Tiwari film close to the ₹ 1000-crore mark worldwide, and it has not even completed a full week at the box office yet.
For a film reportedly budgeted at ₹ 1600-2000 crore, an opening weekend of ₹ 507 crore was slightly below par. Making use of the Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj breaks, the film returned extraordinary figures on Monday and Tuesday, easily moving past the ₹ 800 crore mark worldwide and gaining much-needed momentum both in the domestic market and overseas. On Tuesday, Ramayana earned a staggering ₹ 94 crore net in India, obliterating Baahubali 2’s ₹ 59 crore record by a wide margin. The film saw several houseful shows across India and recorded occupancy figures exceeding 80% for all night shows nationwide. This comes after the film earned ₹ 107 crore net on Monday, giving it a combined ₹ 200 crore domestic haul after its four-day opening weekend. After six days in theatres, Ramayana has now earned ₹ 440 crore net ( ₹ 526 crore gross) at the Indian box office. Sony Pictures distributed the film internationally, giving it a release in 59,000 screens worldwide, almost six times the size of any big Indian release. Yet the film opened to $12.2 million in North America and barely crossed $11 million in other markets. It is estimated to have made close to $3 million in the US across both days, not far behind Minus Zero’s $4 million haul in the same period. As of now, Ramayana has earned $31.7 million in the overseas markets. This takes the film’s worldwide gross to ₹ 823 crore after six days. On Monday, the film beat SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali The Beginning ( ₹ 650 crore). On Tuesday, as another record-breaking day saw it surpass the ₹ 700-crore and ₹ 800-crore marks, Ramayana also moved past the final collections of huge hits like Rajinikanth’s 2.0 ( ₹ 691 crore), Aamir Khan’s PK ( ₹ 769 crore), and Vicky Kaushal’s Chhaava ( ₹ 807 crore). The first part is running in theatres, while the second part is set for a Diwali 2028 release.
However, the box office receipts were underwhelming for a film of this scale and ambitions. But Ramayana turned it around in the post-Diwali break. The issue with Ramayana was its overseas earnings. In the US, Ramayana bridged the gap with Godzilla Minus Zero, despite playing in less than half the screens. It seems absurd now that just a few days ago, Ramayana was lagging behind Adipurush in daily earnings. Now, it is surpassing the lifetime earnings of all-time blockbusters with each passing day. Produced by Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios in collaboration with DNEG and Yash’s Monster Mind Creations, Ramayana is the first of a two-part film. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, and Ravie Dubey as Lakshman.
The Ranbir Kapoor and Yash -starrer opened to great reviews on Thursday, with initial audience reactions largely positive. But here, too, the tide turned on Monday and continued to turn on Tuesday.
