S. Ponniyin 1 advance booking began on Sunday and it got off to a great start, generating a flurry of activity. More than 2.5 lakh tickets for the movie had been sold as of this morning, totaling around Rs. 4.50 crores. Only a little over 225 theatres have started selling tickets for the movie so far; other theatres, including large chains, will start selling tickets today and tomorrow.
In terms of collection, the larger urban areas like Chennai, Trichy, Coimbatore, and Madurai are in the lead. The lead will increase when the advance is offered by national chains because of their significant presence in Chennai and Coimbatore. The start in smaller centers is also good but these are more dependent on the current sales on the day of release.
Only after Beast and Valimai, is the start to collection is the third-best of the year. It comes before Vikram. PS-I is unlikely to match the first-day sales of the top two films because those films, which starred Vijay and Ajith, generated a lot of revenue from early morning fan shows while PS-I won’t. However, it can compete with the two for the remaining days of the weekend, notably Valimai, which had weak sales outside of opening day.
An improved benchmark for The PS-I will be Vikram’s movie went on to make the most money of any movie not starring Vijay, Ajith, or Rajini ever with the first-day advance of more than Rs. 15 crores and a day-ending total of Rs. 21.80 crores. With the kind of first-day advance that has been made, PS-I will easily surpass Rs. 15 crores. It will surpass Rs. 20 crores for opening day, possibly even climbing as high as Rs. 25 crores if the pace is maintained on the last day and smaller centres react like major ones in current sales.
Since Naane Varuvean, which debuts a day earlier on the 29th, will compete, a lot will also depend on the kind of capacity that is developed for the day. The film’s advance has been average thus far, but if it receives positive reviews, it will require some promotion.
In any case, PS-advance I’s booking is another success for Kollywood as the industry has had a successful two months in terms of movie releases. Though only Thiruchitrambalam is the only one to capitalize on the start, almost all major films did open on a strong note and PS-I is another name that, in fact, is the biggest one yet.
