The big Diwali release Ramayana has seen a super strong start to advances which could have been even better but advances for the Hindi version are not open in the South and this area is going to give a huge contribution especially before Diwali as the core Hindi markets will be weaker till the fireworks start on Monday. The South distributors are probably not seeing it this way but they will change in time as even in South it will be Hindi that will be a heavy contributor. You just hope they give the Hindi version its due before release.

It is a better decision to release on Thursday then the Friday as business will get less and less as Diwali gets closer so its likely that this Thursday will give more than the Friday would have but whether advances should be opening this early is another question as you will probably get same sales in 5-7 days and go into release with momentum and with advances opening so early its going to up and down and there is a good chance momentum will go down over the next 15-16 days.

Also the Hindi film industry today is not one where those really great legendary initials come anymore which can be seen with a film like Dhurandhar - The Revenge which despite the craze sees best business on Sunday and not day one which is far less than Sunday. The last truly great initial was probably Bahubali - the Conclusion and before that maybe one of those Salman khan starrers like Ek tha Tiger or Bodyguard though there was holiday aid there. So simply due to this you probably dont need this 15-16 days of advance and 6-7 days will do fine.

The advances at national chains should cross 50K in the first day and that will be without South India which is fantastic but eventually its all going boil down to what happens from Monday onwards and these first four days are just a bonus though it will be a huge bonus. The film is hugely important as a lot of big budget films will get the green light if this does well especially ones which are VFX heavy. If the advances were anything less than great for a big budget film based on Ramayan releasing on Diwali then it would be shut up shop time. The urgency is no doubt there and now it will be down to the film.