Brahmastra remains on course for a RECORD advance for original Hindi films as it could be the first original Hindi film to cross the 30 crore nett mark in terms of advance. The advance stood at around 18 crore nett plus on Wednesday night which is the highest ever with a day to go. In the national multiplex chains it is the second highest ever behind KGF 2 and ahead of Bahubali - The Conclusion with a day to go. This is in terms of collections. KFG 2 and Bahubali - The Conclusion are the only two filsm to cross 30 crore in advance but both are dubbed films and not original Hindi films.

If this was pre pandemic then you could say with certainty that the advance will be a record and cross 30 crore nett with one day to go but post pandemic the trends are different film to film and it is much more difficult to tell exactly how much is going to be sold on the final day of advance.

The advance is driven by excellent sales at the national chains especially in 3D with sales on Saturday being super strong and only 30% less than the first day which is very rare. The advance is less is at places like Gujarat / Saurashtra and the Central circuits but even here it is more than anyone would have expeceted before advance started. Its just comparatively these circuits are a bit lower than others. 

The final advance of the film is likely to end in the 27-32 crore nett range and wherever it falls it is an excellent advance and if we talk post pandemic than it is phenomenal. The advance of the film should be enough to break two myths in the industry.

One that all this boycott fiasco is just in the virtual world and not a reality so best not to give importance and once the HIT films in time it will die a natural death. The industry does not need to say much on this as good films will do all the talking themselves. The media also tends to claim it is not a good time to release Hindi films mainly due to this boycott external factor but like always today is as good as any time for a film which the audience is interested in.

The second myth is that of high ticket prices as Brahmastra has record ticket prices for a Hindi film with only a few Hollywood films showing higher average ticket rates. It is the first time dynamic pricing system has been seen at PVR and Inox as prices automatically adjust slightly higher when there is a demand at a certain theatre. The distribution theory that a high ticket price can never stop sales if the film is interesting enough still holds true. There is that issue of cinema going cost generally being too high today and that also still holds as most films are unable to generate interest with the audience so at the moment need incentives from exhibitors to get people in. It can be read about that here.