With the Diwali festivities behind it, Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana finally seems to be recovering at the box office. The epic had a good but not great start at the box office on its opening weekend. However, its first Monday now gives the film its best chance for a healthier long run. Given the post-Diwali holidays, Ramayana is sure to buck the trend of a drop on the first Monday and is actually on course to register its best day at the domestic box office, and arguably the biggest Monday in Indian cinema history.
Ramayana box office update
Ramayana began with houseful shows on day 1, netting ₹64.85 crore net in India on its opening day. The figure was low given the film’s scale, but it was still the fourth-highest opening in Bollywood history. The film then fell slightly before recovering, ending its opening weekend at ₹239 crore net in India. This included a Saturday haul of ₹69.80 crore net, the film’s best single day so far.
But with Diwali now over, the film is expected to see two bumper days on the Govardhan Puja (Monday) and Bhai Dooj (Tuesday) holidays. Advance booking is indicative of that. Ramayana sold over 14 lakh tickets in pre-sales for Monday, grossing over ₹50 crore. This is the film’s highest single-day advance booking gross so far. This means the film is poised for its biggest single-day at the domestic box office.
On Monday, Ramayana grossed ₹107.50 crore net in India, storming past the ₹250-crore mark and taking its domestic haul to ₹346 crore net. The only worrisome factor for the film is that its earnings have come largely on the back of some good performance by the Hindi version. Despite Yash’s presence as Ravana, the Kannada version hasn’t quite broken the bank yet.
However, on Monday, Ramayana was selling 1.37 lakh tickets per hour on BookMyShow around noon, the highest since the platform started keeping records post-pandemic. Only two other Indian films have ever breached the 1 lakh-ticket-per-hour mark prior to this: Dhurandhar 2 (1.08 lakh) and Pushpa 2 (1.07 lakh).
Ramayana’s all-time Monday record
Dhurandhar 2 holds the record for the best Monday collection by an Indian film. The Ranveer Singh-starrer minted ₹60 crore net on its first Monday earlier this year. Ramayana easily left this mark in the dust. But it’s important to note that Dhurandhar 2’s earnings came from a non-holiday Monday. Before Ramayana, the record for the biggest Monday on a holiday belonged to Salman Khan’s Tiger 3, which earned ₹58 crore on its first Monday, the day of Diwali 2023.
All about Ramayana
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.
