Ramayana: Rise of a Legend opens to $55.7m worldwide in widest US release for an Indian film

Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, director Nitesh Tiwari's adaptation of the ancient Indian epic, collected a studio-reported $55.7 million worldwide over its four-day opening, Variety reported on Sunday 8 November. India contributed about $32 million, the United States and Canada $12.2 million and 37 other international markets $11.5 million. Variety said the result set a new Diwali holiday opening record for an Indian production, and that the film sold more than 11 million tickets, making it the most-watched film in the world that weekend.

In North America the Hindi-language film, distributed by Sony Pictures, opened in 1,433 cinemas, the widest release there for an Indian film, according to Deadline as reported by ComingSoon and the Associated Press. It still ranked only fifth on the domestic Friday-to-Sunday chart, in a weekend dominated by another Asian release, Godzilla Minus Zero.

How much did Ramayana make on its opening weekend?

The headline figures depend on which days are counted. Variety's $12.2 million North American figure, and Deadline's $12.1 million, cover four days including early previews. The standard Friday-to-Sunday weekend figure, used for the domestic chart, was $8.65 million, according to Deadline and Box Office Mojo; the AP rounded it to $8.7 million. Box Office Mojo's daily breakdown shows $2.42 million on Friday, $3.83 million on Saturday and an estimated $2.41 million on Sunday. The Numbers lists a domestic total of about $12.16 million.

Outside India and North America, Variety listed the UK ($3 million), the United Arab Emirates ($2.2 million), Australia ($1.9 million), Germany ($625,000), Thailand ($550,000), Nepal ($500,000), the Netherlands ($240,000) and South Africa ($75,000). It said the UK, Thailand, Netherlands and South Africa results were local records for an Indian film.

All of these are studio estimates. Final domestic figures for the weekend are released on Monday in the US, the AP noted, and they can differ slightly from Sunday's estimates.

How did it do in India?

Indian box office is usually tracked in rupees and as "net" collections, which exclude taxes, so Indian and international reports are not directly comparable. The tracker Sacnilk, cited by The Week, put the film's India net collections at ₹238.85 crore (₹2.39 billion) after four days, with ₹56.15 crore on day four alone across 21,719 shows. The Hindi version accounted for ₹36.75 crore of that day's total, with Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam versions making up much of the rest.

The Week, again citing Sacnilk, said the film narrowly missed the all-time top 10 of opening weekends in India by net collections, ranking 12th with ₹174 crore. Pushpa 2: The Rule leads that list. Independent trackers and studio figures often diverge, so these numbers should be treated as estimates.

Why is this release significant?

Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is the first of two parts and the most expensive Indian film ever made, the AP reported. It stars Ranbir Kapoor, Yash and Sai Pallavi, and is presented by Sony Pictures and Namit Malhotra's Prime Focus Studios in association with Monster Mind Creations and the visual effects company DNEG, according to Variety. ComingSoon reported that the score was composed by Hans Zimmer and A.R. Rahman.

The scale of the rollout was unusual. Variety said the film opened in more than 130 countries, on more than 10,000 screens and in 17 dubbed languages, the widest distribution ever attempted for Indian cinema. It opened in India and abroad at the same time, timed for the Diwali festival.

In North America, its four-day start was the second-biggest ever for an Indian film, behind Dhurandhar: The Revenge, which opened with $14 million in March, according to Variety and Deadline.

What part did IMAX and premium screens play?

Ramayana was filmed for IMAX, the AP said. Variety reported that it took $6 million from IMAX screens worldwide, about 11% of its global debut and a record global IMAX launch for an Indian film. That included $2 million in India, an all-time IMAX record there, $2.5 million from 53 North American screens and $1.4 million from 32 screens in other markets.