The overseas presales for Dhurandhar: The Revenge opened earlier this week, and the start has been expectedly terrific.
The strongest response is coming from the United States, where the Ranveer Singh starrer has raked in nearly USD 600K in pre-sales for the weekend. Of this, more than USD 250K is for Wednesday previews, with another USD 100K for Thursday, the opening day. The spread of sales is great, with Friday and Saturday also clearing USD 100K in advance. In comparison, the previous best for a Bollywood film was Jawan, which had around USD 300K pre-sales at the same time before release. That puts Dhurandhar: The Revenge at nearly double the earlier record. Even more encouraging is the pace at which fresh bookings are coming in, suggesting the margin over the previous best could widen further in the coming days.
Based on these sales, the film is locked to cross USD 1 million previews in the United States, which in all likelihood will be done in advance itself. It will likely clear USD 1.50 million as well, with the possibility of hitting USD 2 million. Following that is a four-day extended weekend, by the end of which the film could be sitting close to, or perhaps even above, USD 10 million. Notably, only three Bollywood films have crossed the USD 10 million mark in the United States, with Pathaan holding the record for the biggest opening at USD 6.65 million over five days.
Similarly, in Australia, at the end of the day yesterday, the film had AUD 100K in sales over the weekend, around 40-50 per cent higher than Pathaan and Jawan at the same time. The margin has increased further today as the film continues to add sales at a rapid pace. A record opening looks locked here as well, possibly targeting the new benchmark of AUD 3 million weekend. Along with the United States and Australia, the first Dhurandhar was a record grosser in Canada as well, where the advance hasn’t opened yet. Whence they do, expect similar record-breaking numbers there.
The first film had relatively underperformed in the United Kingdom, missing the all-time record. That was partly due to the subject matter of the film and partly because, well, Pathaan was just too big. Still, it did great at over GBP 3 million, and the sequel is seeing strong presales as well, though slightly behind Jawan and Pathaan. That said, the market fares strongly over Eid, which could help the film close the gap and eventually deliver record numbers during its run.
The one market missing from the action is the Middle East, where the original film also missed the release, and the sequel is expected to as well. Eid is a huge holiday period in the region, and the film could have done huge numbers there as well. The absence of the Middle East will prevent Dhurandhar: The Revenge from challenging the overall overseas opening record currently held by Pathaan, but the rest could end up being so big that it could get real close.