Did 'Pathaan' set a new record for advance booking beating 'KGF 2' record? BookMyShow tells a different story

Going by the online ticket platform, many shows across the cities are not running packed houses.

Mumbai, Jan 25: Shah Rukh Khan's 'Pathaan' has reportedly released in over 5,200 screens in India on Wednesday to coincide with the Republic Day celebration.

As per the trade trackers, the movie has met with a stupendous response for the advance booking by clocking 5.56 lakh tickets and surpassed the sales of 'KGF: Chapter 2' (5.15 lakh) at national chains, analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted.

"The film is going to take a historic start at the box office with opening day collections of Rs 45 to Rs 50 cr. The box office revival will begin with 'Pathaan', especially looking at its advance booking, which is very rare. It is a great start to 2023 despite being a working day," PTI quoted him as saying.

A report in Bollywood Hungama claims that the movie will mint around Rs 40-42 crore on the first day.

Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, Joint Managing Director, PVR Limited, told the news agency that they have met with a phenomenal advance booking at their 903 chains across India. "We have a phenomenal opening of 'Pathaan' with advances of close to 5 lac admissions for the first long weekend of the movie. This will be the first SRK film that will open at 6am in PVR cinemas," Bijli said in a statement.

According to leading ticketing platform BookMyShow (BMS), over one million tickets have been booked. The advance sales for "Pathaan" have been opening up in phases with over 3,500 screens available on BMS so far, besides there is a surge in demand to open up early morning shows as well.

"The response across India has been phenomenal with cinephiles choosing a cinematic experience as they opt for varied formats including 2D, IMAX and 4DX across cities," Ashish Saksena, COO, Cinemas, BookMyShow, said in a statement.

Another leading multiplex chain INOX is optimistic that "Pathaan" will break records. "It is one of the best advances that we have had at INOX at our 722 screens across India. We have sold more than 1.5 lac tickets for Wednesday and more than 3.5 lac tickets till Sunday. "This film is going to break the advance booking of 'KGF 2′ and will do a business of Rs 45 to 50 cr," Rajendra Singh Jyala, chief programming officer at multiplex chain INOX, said.

Not just multiplexes, the film is enjoying bumper advance booking in single screen theatres as well.Mumbai's popular single-screen theatre Gaiety, Galaxy and Maratha Mandir has ticket booking of 70 to 80 per cent. "For the first time, we are having morning shows starting from 9am for SRK fan clubs, who have almost booked the entire theatre," Desai said, adding, the ticket prices have been kept nominal in the range of Rs 130 to Rs 160.

A report on Bollywood portal Koimoi has claimed that the movie has garnered Rs 32.43 crore. Whereas Bollywood Hungama stated that the movie will mint around Rs 40-42 crore on the first day. Some reports even went on to claim that the movie will do Rs 50-60 crore business.

Despite trade trackers and industry insiders claiming that the advance booking of tickets met with a great response, netizens have pointed out that many shows are empty across the major cities.

It means there are plenty of ticket available.

We went through the BookMyShow where we found out that many shows were not running houseful as yet and 'green' (indicating tickets are available) could be seen.

Till 9 am, we found the below (approximate) occupancy rate in the major cities. Interestingly, Hyderabad has got a fantastic response.

Hyderabad: 80 per cent
Mumbai: 40 per cent
Bengaluru: 50 per cent
Ahmedabad: 25 per cent
Kolkata: 65 per cent
Delhi: 50 per cent
Lucknow: 30 per cent
Pune: 30 per cent

However, the occupancy rate might be less as some cities like Mumbai are having over 1,000 shows on the first day. Notably, evening shows are getting far better response than morning shows.

Whether the movie has crossed the pre-sales business of 'KGF 2' is not clear as the box-office figures mentioned by the trade trackers are not official numbers.