Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge on track for Rs 1 billion box office sales on opening day

Dubai: Ranveer Singh's highly anticipated spy thriller Dhurandhar: The Revenge is making waves at the box office before a single frame has played in cinemas. With paid previews set for March 18, a day ahead of the official release on March 19, advance booking figures are already putting it in record-breaking territory for Indian cinema.

According to box office tracking platform Sacnilk, the film has collected 156.4 million from paid preview advance sales in India. When block bookings are added, that figure climbs to 211.9 million, placing it right on the heels of They Call Him OG, Pawan Kalyan's 2025 Telugu blockbuster that currently holds the record for the biggest Indian premiere ever at 250 million.

Given the current trajectory and with ten days still remaining before the preview screenings, projections suggest Dhurandhar: The Revenge could earn as much as 350 million from paid previews alone by the time it releases. Advance booking for the opening weekend has not even opened yet.

To put the earlier milestone in context, Stree 2 set a major benchmark in 2024 with paid preview collections of 94 million net. Dhurandhar: The Revenge has already surpassed that by 69 per cent.

Hindi is overwhelmingly driving ticket sales, accounting for 152.8 million of the total from 2.6 lakh tickets sold. The Tamil dubbed version follows with 16.29 lakh from 11,227 tickets, and the Telugu dubbed version is close behind with 14.39 lakh from 6,009 tickets. The Kannada and Malayalam versions trail further behind.

Maharashtra, Delhi, and Karnataka are the strongest performing markets, and the cast is giving audiences plenty of reasons to show up. Ranveer Singh leads the film alongside Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Arjun Rampal, Rakesh Bedi, and Sara Arjun, all reprising their roles from the first part. Aditya Dhar, who previously directed Uri: The Surgical Strike, is back at the helm.

The film also benefitted from a significant scheduling advantage after Yash-starrer Toxic: A Fairytale for Grownups was postponed from March 19 to June 4, removing what would have been a major box office clash.

Leading cinema chains including INOX, PVR, and Cinepolis have introduced new premium pricing categories specifically for Dhurandhar: The Revenge previews. The highest-priced ticket across India is 3,100 rupees for the Recliner Prime category at the 10.15pm Insignia show at INOX Megaplex, Sky City Mall in Mumbai. That category is already sold out.

At the other end, government-regulated pricing in South Indian states means tickets are available for as low as 59 rupees at AGS Cinemas in Chennai.

The film is officially being released under a new "Super Blockbuster Plus Rates" pricing tier, introduced because of its nearly four-hour runtime. This is a step above the standard Blockbuster and Super Blockbuster pricing that major releases typically adopt.

Including previews, industry analysts are forecasting an opening day collection of between 850 and 1 billion net, with a pinpoint estimate of around 950 million. That would place the film firmly on track for a historic 1 billion opening.

The release falls on March 19, which coincides with Gudi Padwa and Ugadi celebrations, giving it a built-in festive audience in Maharashtra and South India.

The first Dhurandhar became the highest grossing Indian film ever at the domestic box office, earnDhurandhar: The Revenge premiere show business (Photo: Movie still)ing over 890 crore, and the fourth highest grossing Indian film worldwide, crossing 1,300 crore. The sequel carries enormous expectations, and on current evidence, it looks every bit capable of living up to them.