Dhurandhar: The Revenge has been on sale in India for four days now. Till now, the paid previews on Wednesday were exclusively on sale. The wait is now for the bookings for the rest of the opening weekend to open, which may happen today. If they don’t, that will be due to a conflict that has arisen between the distributor and national chains over the revenue sharing of the first film and showcasing exclusivity for this one. It’s mainly the first one which is serious and will be quite unprecedented if it is met with. A compromise is likely to be reached eventually, but it could delay the opening of bookings for the weekend. Even so, such a delay is not material.
So far, the film has raked in Rs. 13 crore nett approx for the paid previews, making it already the biggest paid previews ever for a Bollywood film, beating Rs. 8.75 crore nett of Stree 2. The aim is for the Indian record, which is held by They Call Him OG (Rs. 26 crore nett). At the moment, Dhurandhar: The Revenge appears well placed to take that.
The strongest response to advance has come from the circuits with bigger metros like Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. A centre like Bengaluru is closing in on Rs. 2 crore nett, which is phenomenal. Other than the fact that Dhurandhar was a huge blockbuster in the urban centres, these centres are more accustomed to having previews. The patronage in late-night shows is also better compared to smaller centres, which do better in daytime shows, especially in the Hindi belt.
The Ranveer Singh starrer has maintained a steady pace after a big start on Saturday. Normally, one would expect the pace to drop considerably in the middle part of such a long pre-sales window, but the film has kept going. Even yesterday, it added nearly Rs. 1.75 crore nett to its tally, which is simply superb. There are still seven more days to go, and with the sort of momentum the film is carrying, it would be expected to cross Rs. 25 crore nett in final pre-sales, possibly more. However, with the rest of the weekend opening up today (if they do), the pace will likely take a hit as the public will have more shows to book for and that too at a lower price. Still, the way for Rs. 20 crore nett plus advance for previews, remains open, unless of course the film continue it steady pace unimpacted by the opening of advances for the rest of the weekend.
