'Ponniyin Selvan': How advance booking will translate into collection at box office on first day?

Chennai, Sep 29: The advance booking of tickets for Mani Ratnam's ambitious 'Ponniyin Selvan: 1' has garnered quite a stunning response from the cine-goers. As a result, the multilingual movie is set to have a stupendous opening and in all likelihood, the much-awaited flick will break many a records too.

Ponniyin Selvan Advance Booking

The tickets have been selling like hotcakes at key centres, as per the trade trackers. Cashing in on the craze, distributors and exhibitors have planned special morning shows for the movie apart from regular shows. It begins as early as 4 am on Friday in Chennai where the movie is having over 700 shows on the opening day.

Chennai's leading cinema hall Rohini Silverscreens alone has sold over 30,000 tickets, as per its owner Nikilesh Surya. Sharing his excitement over the thunderous response, he tweeted, "MASSIVE. #PonniyinSelvan advance bookings edges past the 30k mark from our single property @RohiniSilverScr. The third film in our history to do so. Still 31 hours to go. THE CHOLAS ARE HERE! [sic]"

Also, Rakesh Gowthaman, who runs Vettri Theatres, in Tamil Nadu, said that the response has been "terrific". He wrote, "#PonniyinSelvan advance bookings in #Vettri is terrific ... it's so true audience are so eagerly looking forward for this pride of Indian Cinema ... [sic]"

Industry insiders say that there is a massive craze around the film across state.

Apart from Tamil Nadu, the advance booking has met with a great response in overseas centres like US and Malaysia.

How Advance Booking is Translating to Collection?

As per the trade trackers, Ponniyin Selvan is set for a great start at the worldwide box office. It is estimated that the tickets worth over Rs 12.5 crore have been sold in Tamil version alone. However, the other versions (Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam) have contributed around Rs 1.5 crore.

So far, the movie has grossed Rs 14 crore from the advance booking alone in India. The ticket sales of the Hindi version of the movie has not picked up yet, reports say.

As far as the overseas box office is concerned, the movie is predicted to earn $1 million in the US from the premiere shows alone. If this happens, the Mani Ratnam-directorial will be the second film after Rajinikanth's 'Kabali' to hit $1-million mark in the US from the premiere.

The early trends indicate that 'Ponniyin Selvan: 1' will gross over Rs 50 crore worldwide on the first day.

'Ponniyin Selvan: 1' is a historical film based on Kalki's novel of the same name. The film stars Vikram, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Karthi, Jayam Ravi and Trisha among others.