Raees, Kaabil Advance Booking Report

The clash between Raees and Kaabil is one of the biggest in recent times and the verdict on who will emerge the winner, will be out tomorrow morning. But as far as the advance booking of the two films is concerned, Raees is way ahead of Kaabil at the moment.

The difference between tickets sold in advance, varies from place to place, but Raees holds the lead almost all across India. At some places, especially the bigger cities, Raees has taken a huge lead with estimates suggesting 8-9 crore worth of tickets have been sold in advance (until 1PM on 24 Jan).

The Shah Rukh Khan starrer is way ahead in cities Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and even the NCR region is strong. Mumbai city and the Mumbai circuit in general barring Gujarat (where Raees leads) has taken a slower start for both films as compared to other major cities. Kaabil is closer across the core Hindi belt.

Some quick points:

• Even though it was announced that the ‘show sharing’ would be equal, it isn’t. Raees has been allotted more shows at multiplexes. The higher occupancy screen at a multiplex (i.e screens with higher seating capacity) have also gone to Raees.
• As per our estimates and internal trade reports, the all-India capacity of Raees is around 20-25% higher than Kaabil.
• Raees is getting a wider single-screen release too.

Overall, Raees has a big lead when it comes to advance ticket sales. It also has higher number of shows and higher capacity screens. Kaabil is good, better than many films that released in 2016 and better than Mohenjo Daro – but it hasn’t been able to match up to Raees so far, both because of Shah Rukh Khan’s star power and a solid trailer with mass appeal. But the pre-release reports are good and Kaabil could gain momentum towards the end of the day.