By Ayesha Khan 
Mumbai, March 13: The numbers are in, and they are historic. Dhurandhar: The Revenge, director Aditya Dhar’s much-anticipated sequel to the 2025 spy-action blockbuster Dhurandhar, has crossed the Rs 60 crore mark in worldwide bookings, and the staggering part is that regular show pre-sales in India have not even opened yet. What is driving this box-office earthquake is entirely the advance sale of paid preview shows on March 18, a day before the film’s official release. Indian cinema has rarely seen anything quite like this.
A Number That Stops You Cold
By the morning of March 13, bookings for the film’s premiere shows had sold over 4.7 lakh tickets nationwide, earning a gross of Rs 24.4 crore in India alone. That figure covers only the March 18 paid preview the bookings for the official release date of March 19 and the opening weekend have not yet been activated for Indian audiences.
The worldwide gross collection in booking is now approaching Rs 60 crore, and trade analysts expect it to shoot well past the Rs 100 crore mark once full booking opens in India. Some projections, as reported by India TV News, suggest the total could even coast toward Rs 150 crore in pre-sales before a single regular-day show begins a figure that would place Dhurandhar: The Revenge in entirely uncharted territory for Indian cinema.
The Overseas Surge
Internationally, North America is leading the charge, with the Ranveer Singh-starrer earning around $3 million for the opening weekend, including nearly $1 million from preview shows alone. Additional bookings across Europe, Asia, and Oceania have added just under $1 million to the global tally.
This is not merely impressive for a Bollywood film; it is exceptional by any global standard. The advance sales abroad have already surpassed the entire opening weekend numbers of the first Dhurandhar, indicating how dramatically the franchise’s international standing has grown in the one year since the original’s release. Sacnilk. That original, it should be noted, went on to earn Rs 1,300 crore worldwide, a number that had itself rewritten the rules for Bollywood’s commercial potential.
Records That No Longer Stand
The records being dismantled by Dhurandhar: The Revenge span the full spectrum of Indian commercial cinema. The film is poised to surpass the Rs 25 crore paid premiere record set by Pawan Kalyan’s OG last year, which was previously the benchmark for the highest Indian premiere collection. In the Hindi film industry specifically, the numbers are even more revelatory. The previous Bollywood record for paid previews was held by Stree 2, and Dhurandhar: The Revenge has more than doubled it with India-only premiere figures.
The film has also recorded the highest booking collection in Ranveer Singh’s career, surpassing the Rs 32 crore pre-release figure of Pathaan and the Rs 40 crore mark set by Jawan during their respective run-ups. That is a significant leap for an actor who has had a turbulent box-office journey over the past several years, and it signals that the Dhurandhar franchise has given Singh a foothold as a bona fide solo-lead bankable star, perhaps for the first time with this level of conviction from audiences.
Ticket Prices That Tell Their Own Story
The demand is visible not just in volume but in pricing. At INOX Megaplex in Borivali, Mumbai, tickets for the 10:15 PM and 11:15 PM shows at PVR Insignia class are priced between Rs 2,900 and Rs 3,100. All 24 recliner prime seats priced at Rs 3,100 for the 10:15 PM show are already sold out. Several multiplexes in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi NCR have priced tickets above Rs 2,000 and those shows, too, are reporting full houses.
This has prompted industry observers to note an unusual new phenomenon in Indian theatrical exhibition. The film’s near four-hour runtime means fewer daily shows per screen, which multiplex chains are compensating for by introducing what is being informally called a “Super Blockbuster Plus” pricing tier. That this has not dampened ticket demand, but has instead been absorbed entirely by audiences willing to pay a premium, reflects the extraordinary commercial heat surrounding the film.
The contrast is equally stark at the other end of the price spectrum. At AGS Cinemas in Chennai, the lowest available ticket is priced at Rs 59 for a Pearl category seat a reminder that Dhurandhar: The Revenge is simultaneously a national mass entertainer and a premium urban event.
The Sequel That Carried Its Weight
Context matters here. Dhurandhar: The Revenge does not arrive as a standalone gamble it comes as the follow-up to one of the most commercially successful Hindi films in recent memory. To build anticipation further, the first Dhurandhar has been re-released in 500 screens worldwide, including 250 screens in India, in one of the largest re-release exercises in recent Bollywood history. This kind of pre-release strategy, borrowed from the playbook used by South Indian studios for their franchise entries, signals how seriously the producers Jio Studios and B62 Studios are treating this launch.
Director Aditya Dhar, who broke through nationally with Uri: The Surgical Strike in 2019, has now built a filmography defined by high-stakes patriotic action with emotional grounding. Ranveer Singh returns as Jaskirat Singh Rangi, also known by his alias Hamza, a double identity at the centre of the franchise’s spy thriller architecture. The sequel’s cast includes R. Madhavan, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal, Sara Arjun, and Rakesh Bedi, with Akshaye Khanna reportedly appearing in a cameo role.
The film reunites Dhar with National Award-winning music director Shashwat Sachdev, who also scored the original, and the promotional campaign has been building steadily through a series of music releases and event-based engagement, including an exclusive Spotify fan event scheduled in Mumbai on March 17, two days ahead of the theatrical release.
What This Tells Indian Cinema
The Dhurandhar: The Revenge booking story is not just about one film having a good week before release. It is a signal about the direction in which Indian theatrical film consumption is moving toward franchise loyalty, premium pricing acceptance, and a diaspora-fuelled overseas market that is no longer a secondary concern but a primary box-office constituency.
The pre-sales for the movie in international markets have already crossed the opening weekend total of the first Dhurandhar a film that was itself considered a massive overseas success. That trajectory, sustained and intensified in one sequel, suggests that Dhurandhar is on its way to becoming the kind of franchise that shapes exhibition strategy, production investment decisions, and how studios think about sequel planning for years ahead.
For Ranveer Singh, the moment carries personal weight beyond commerce. After a period of inconsistent box-office performance, the numbers around Dhurandhar: The Revenge represent a full-throated public endorsement the kind that only comes from audiences genuinely invested in a story, not just a star. Whether the film delivers on that expectation when it opens on March 19 is the only question that remains unanswered. Everything else has already made history.
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- Ayesha Khan
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Ananya Sharma and Ayesha Khan