That is why whenever a film earns big on Monday, it is a sign of a healthy lifetime run. Mondays are traditionally not a film’s best friend at the box office. Most films around the world release on Fridays and do their best business over the weekend. Mondays are when the collections drop. Over the last few years, with shorter theatrical runs, the Monday tests have become sharper and the drops bigger. Of course, it is easier for word of mouth to propel smaller films like The Kashmir Files or Hanuman Ansh , but every once in a while, a film like Ramayana comes along. The Nitesh Tiwari film made the most of post-Diwali holidays to mount the biggest Monday ever seen in Indian cinema history, with a collection so gargantuan that it dwarfed even the Baahubalis and Dhurandhars of the world.
Produced by Namit Malhotra’s Prime Focus Studios in collaboration with DNEG and Yash’s Monster Mind Creations, Ramayana is the first part of a duology. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, and Ravie Dubey as Lakshman. The first part released worldwide on November 5, 2026, while the second part is set for release on Diwali 2028. The film has earned ₹ 663 crore gross worldwide in five days so far, and will be looking to cross the ₹ 1000 crore mark by its second weekend.
The film saw a spectacular 91% jump in domestic collections. It earned ₹ 107.50 crore net in India on the day, a new record for Mondays. Prior to this, the record belonged to Baahubali 2, which earned ₹ 80 crore net in all languages on its first Monday. Pushpa 2: The Rule emerged as the biggest opening film in Indian cinema history in 2024. On its release day, the Allu Arjun blockbuster raked in ₹ 164 crore net in India. During the day, the film sold 1.07 lakh tickets per hour on BookMyShow. It remained the only film to have a lakh tickets per hour on the platform till Dhurandhar 2 joined in this year. Around noon, the film was selling 1.4 lakh tickets per hour, a new record for BookMyShow. Ramayana earned ₹ 107.50 crore net ( ₹ 131 crore gross) in India on Monday, its single-largest collection since release. Overseas, the Ranbir Kapoor and Yash-starrer did not have the benefit of a post-Diwali holiday, but it still brought in $2.7 million from international markets. This gave the film a single-day haul of ₹ 156 crore on Monday, one of the highest for any Indian film on a non-release weekday.
On Monday, its fifth day in theatres, Ramayana finally breathed free as the Diwali festivities ended, but the holidays did not. Ramayana beat both these films on Monday.
Ramayana took that record, too. Ramayana benefitted from the Govardhan Puja holiday on its first Monday. In Bollywood, the record belonged to Dhurandhar 2, which earned ₹ 60 crore net on its first Monday earlier this year. However, both Baahubali 2 and Dhurandhar 2 had their first Monday hauls on a non-holiday. The previous festive Monday record for an Indian film was held by Salman Khan’s Tiger 3. The 2023 film earned ₹ 58 crore net on Diwali, a Monday.
