Ranveer Singh is rewriting box office history before his new movie even hits the screen. Aditya Dhar’s highly anticipated spy thriller, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, is generating such massive ticket demand that theatres are throwing out their normal schedules to run 24-hour shows.
The craze has actually broken a three-decade-old Bollywood tradition. For the last 30 years, Mumbai’s iconic Maratha Mandir theatre has played Shah Rukh Khan’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) every single day at 11:30 AM. But following the unprecedented demand for Dhurandhar 2, the management had to make a tough call. Because the new spy thriller clocks in at a massive 3 hours and 55 minutes, they shifted the legendary DDLJ show to 10:00 AM just to fit it in.
This kind of adjustment is shocking trade experts, but it makes perfect sense when you look at the wider ticket sales. Because of the heavy runtime, multiplexes are adopting a completely new strategy. Instead of the usual four shows a day per screen, cinema chains like PVR and MovieMax in areas like Mumbai and Thane are starting screenings at 1:50 AM. This means fans will be watching Dhurandhar 2 around the clock. The post-midnight rush will kick off early Thursday morning, right after tomorrow’s paid premieres wrap up.
The advance booking numbers explain the earth-shattering hype. The film has already sold over 1.5 million tickets across India for its opening weekend. Between paid premieres and day-one sales, it has pulled in Rs 60 crore domestically and crossed the Rs 100 crore mark worldwide. With Ranveer Singh returning as undercover agent Jaskirat Singh Rangi, the box office is clearly ready for a massive weekend.