Well, it doesn’t end here! Ghajini now has the highest advance booking ever in the history of multiplexes in India. The advance booking opened on Sunday at multiplexes and on Monday at single screens.
Ghajini’s advance booking is as high as 50 percent for the weekend, which the multiplexes have never seen before. For any other movie the advance booking is in the range of 10 – 20 percent only, because tickets are mostly sold in current due to the umpteen number of shows held at multiplexes.
Most tickets of Ghajini were sold through various block bookings at multiplexes. The response for counter sales, telephone and website bookings is also good.
Inox vice president programming and distribution Utpal Acharya added, "The advance booking is extra ordinary. All tickets for 24 and 25 December are sold out at all Inox properties across the country. For the weekend the response is very good in North India and West, followed by South India and then East India."
"Fifty to sixty percent tickets have already been booked from Wednesday till Sunday. But the rush is mostly for Wednesday and Thursday as people want to watch the film as early as possible. These are by far the best bookings ever," said Fun Cinemas AVP programming Bhumika Tewari.
Cinemax senior vice president Devang Sampat said, "Almost 45 percent tickets have been sold and the weekend is also filling in fast. The booking for Ghajini is very good. Last year’s highest grosser films also did not have such bookings."
Ghajini producer Madhu Mantena added, "I am very happy to see the public responding to our film in such great numbers. We always wanted to create urgency in the audience to watch the film in the first few weeks of release. It’s great to see that our marketing efforts have managed to create that."
Ghajini is releasing on Thursday, instead of Friday and is also having paid previews on Wednesday evening, so this surely gives the film a big release window. But on the flip side the movie is not getting many shows at multiplexes due to its three hour length. Four screen multiplexes are holding 11 shows and six screen properties are holding 17 shows.
It remains to be seen, whether the film will set a new record with its weekend collection worldwide. The highest till date have been Singh Is Kinng and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi with approximately Rs 600 million (Rs 60 crores).
