Thugs Of Hindostan advance opened on Saturday and was off to a flyer as it sold around 2 lakh tickets across the country on Saturday. This is better than Tiger Zinda Hai, Sanju and  Avengers - Infinity War but less than Bahubali - The Conclusion. The NETT amount collected in advance will also be lower than Avengers - Infinity War as Thugs Of Hindostan has nearly half the tickets sold coming from single screens while Avengers - Infinity War was far less in single screens.

The Delhi / UP market leads in terms of advance with both multiplexes and single screens selling fast. UP will be huge as most of the single screens will record full houses. The first show will heavy in the state for this type of larger than life cinema. Delite which is the probably the best single screen in Delhi with reasonable rates on top saw 5000 tickets sold in a matter of hours. 

The three big national chains of PVR, Inox and Cinepolis saw around 50k tickets sold between them on Saturday which is a big number for just one day. The opening day advance is at record pace or very close to it after the first day but it is difficult to judge where it will land due to pre Diwali. The film will have only five days for advance and most of these days will see Diwali festivities. 

The advance period for Diwali releases normally comes in that pre Diwali week which makes it a little harder. Last year Golmaal Again had hardly any advance due to release issues but it opened big on the day, Secret Superstar opened advances but that film was hardly interesting that it will get bookings prior to release. A Prem Ratan Dhan Payo managed to set an ALL TIME ADVANCE RECORD in pre Diwali week but it was not chasing an epic record breaker like Bahubali - The Conclusion. Also it beat the previous record holder Dhoom 3 by a very small margin.

Happy New Year the year before failed to beat the advance records of Dhoom 3 but still managed a record opening day. The reason that advances stayed less was probably due to pre Diwali. There was a time when the shows were mostly filled in advance in a matter of a days prior to Diwali be it Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978), Dil Kaa Heera (1979), Dostana (1980), Yaarana (1981) or Samraat (1982). All these Diwali releases were dealing with weekday sales in a matter of no time. The difference is at that time there were 15 lakh tickets apprx available for the weekend and now there are 1.50 crore plus tickets apprx available for a three day weekend.

The weird thing is that despite 1.50 crore tickets available over the three day weekend we are not selling much more than 15 lakh which was the case in forty years back. Bahubali - The Conclusion topped 40 lakhs, Tiger Zinda Hai and Sanju would be 25 and 20 lakh apprx respectively but these are exceptions. Generally 15 lakh tickets sold prior to release would be huge today.

Coming back to Thugs Of Hindostan it is going to be big advance but difficult to judge where it will land up just before release. If the first day pace continues it will be near Bahubali - The Conclusion but past history says the pace over the next few days may not be like films released in other periods so it may even finish like a Tiger Zinda Hai or Sanju. But irrespective of advance its pretty certain that the on the day audience will come on day one after the Diwali festivities are over.