Bollywood Epic Ramayana Nears All-Time Box Office Record In Week 2

Published Nov 15, 2026, 11:03 AM EST

Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.

Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is crafting a legend of its own at the box office.

The new Bollywood movie, which was directed and co-written by Nitesh Tiwari, is an adaptation of the Hindu epic poem of the same name that stars Ranbir Kapoor as Rama opposite Kannada cinema icon Yash as Ravana (making his Bollywood debut). 2026's Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, which is the first of a two-part adaptation (the sequel is expected to debut during Diwali in 2028), debuted on November 5 and earned a 3-day opening weekend of $8.9 million in North America, which gave it one of the Top 5 domestic debuts in history for an Indian movie.

Sony Pictures Releasing, which is distributing the movie outside India, has confirmed that Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is projected to earn a 3-day total of $5.5 million at the domestic box office by the end of its sophomore weekend. This sees it pushing its cumulative domestic gross to $24.1 million, which will make it the second highest-grossing Indian movie in history at the domestic box office, behind only Dhurandhar: The Revenge, which grossed $28.1 million at the domestic box office earlier this year and a total of $152.9 million worldwide.

This means that Ramayana: Rise of a Legend is just $4 million away from becoming the highest-grossing Indian movie ever at the domestic box office. It could very well take that throne before the end of its run, considering its current momentum. There has also been a concerted push for the movie to connect with North American audiences, which includes showcasing the movie in a panel at San Diego Comic-Con and inviting Hans Zimmer (Inception, Dune, The Lion King) to collaborate on the score with Slumdog Millionaire's A. R. Rahman.

Rahman, who also scored Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, is a two-time Oscar winner, with Best Original Score and Best Original Song trophies for Slumdog Millionaire.

It is vital that the movie performs well across the board, because it has broken the record as the most expensive Indian movie of all time. The two Ramayana movies combined have a reported budget of ₹4,000 crore, which is about $425 million. Rise of a Legend's ₹2,000 crore budget takes the record by a considerable margin, beating 2024's Kalki 2898 AD (₹700 crore) as well as the impending second place title, 2027's Varanasi (₹1,400 crore).

While it is already the seventh highest-grossing Indian movie worldwide, Ramayana still has a way to climb. Currently, the highest-grossing Indian movie in history is 2016's Dangal, which made $305.1 million worldwide ($426.5 million when adjusted for inflation). However, the 2026 movie will need to earn considerably more than that, as its budget may place its estimated break-even point somewhere around $525 million or higher.

Scratch & Peek

Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as possible.

While it hasn't reached that benchmark quite yet, the movie has shown strong momentum critically as well as commercially. Critics' Ramayana: Rise of a Legend reviews have earned the movie a solidly Fresh 77% on Rotten Tomatoes, while verified audience members have given it an even better, Verified Hot, score of 94%, indicating that there is strong word of mouth for the movie (to compare, Dangal earned 93% from audiences).

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