Ramayana: Part 1 finished fourth at the North American box office on its opening weekend, according to the final figures on Box Office Mojo — a better result than the seventh-place finish carried in yesterday’s corrected post, which was based on a partial Mojo listing that was later revised sharply upward. The final Friday-to-Sunday gross is $8,939,505 from 1,433 theatres, for a per-theatre average of $6,238 — the second-best average in the top ten, behind only Godzilla Minus Zero.
The correction matters because the earlier figure understated the film’s performance by nearly $2.7 million. The Numbers, the other major tracker, puts the Friday-to-Sunday figure at $8,939,505 — the same as Box Office Mojo — with a four-day total of $12,445,187 including Thursday’s opening. The two trackers now agree, and Ramayana was the fourth-biggest film in North America this weekend, ahead of You Can See Everything, Wildwood and Clayface.
The widest Indian release ever
The weekend also saw the widest North American release for an Indian film, according to the Associated Press reporting carried by BusinessMirror. The 1,433-theatre rollout is a statement of intent from Sony Pictures Releasing, which is distributing the film in the United States and Canada, and it paid off: the film’s per-theatre average of $6,238 beat every Hollywood release in the top ten except Godzilla.
The film opened on Thursday, November 5, ahead of the Diwali holiday weekend, and its four-day North American total of $12,445,187, according to The Numbers, puts it well ahead of the opening of most Indian films in the market. It is also the second-highest-grossing film in the world for the weekend, with a global weekend of $52.15 million on Comscore’s count, according to Bollywood Hungama.
A record Monday back home
The North American result is only part of the story. In India, the film collected a record Rs 107.50 crore net on Monday — the biggest first Monday in Bollywood history — taking its five-day India net total to Rs 346.35 crore, as covered in today’s companion post. Worldwide, it has taken around Rs 664 crore in five days.
The Nitesh Tiwari epic, starring Ranbir Kapoor as Rama, Yash as Ravana and Sai Pallavi as Sita, runs 3 hours 15 minutes and is playing in five languages. Its reported budget of around Rs 900 crore makes it one of the most expensive Indian films ever made. The final North American figures confirm what the weekend suggested: this is not a niche release. It is a genuine global blockbuster, and it finished fourth in the world’s biggest market.
