The highly anticipated film, Border 2, is set to release this Friday, January 23. The booking was opened way in advance, on Sunday, which was a pleasant surprise. Recently, theatres have started selling tickets for several big releases a day or two before the release due to competition from holdover releases, especially Dhurandhar. With the Ranveer Singh-starrer almost reaching the end of its run and no other biggie clashing on January 23, theatres had no reason to hold back its bookings. In this article, Bollywood Hungama will exclusively focus on the request made by the distributor from the exhibitors over showcasing.

EXCLUSIVE: Border 2 to dominate theatres – Single screens locked for TWO weeks; 4–6 screen multiplexes asked to play 14–18 shows a day for a week

As per trade sources, the distributors have asked for all shows in the single screens, that too for 2 weeks. For the rest of the theatres with multiple screens, the directive needs to be followed for just one week.

In two-screen cinemas as well, the distributors have told theatres to allot all shows to Border 2. For 3-screen cinemas, 12 shows a day are a must. Multiplexes with 4, 5 and 6 screens need to play 14 shows, 16 shows and 18 shows a day, respectively. Finally, for theatres with 7 or more screens, the requirement is 20 shows a day.

A trade source commented, “Border 2 is 3 hours and 19 minutes long. This means that the gap between the two shows in most cinemas would be four hours. Assuming 4 shows of Border 2 are played daily, one can say that even three-screen cinemas will allot all shows to Border 2 and to no other film, provided they follow the directive.”

The advance booking has been super strong. As on Monday at 6.00 PM, Border 2 has sold 13,500 tickets in the top 3 national chains – PVR, Inox and Cinepolis. In fact, trade sources suggest that it would open at Rs. 40 crores. Since it releases on a four-day weekend (Monday is a National Holiday on account of Republic Day), the first week numbers are expected to be sky-high.

Also Read: Javed Akhtar reveals he REFUSED to write songs for Border 2, calls reworks “creative bankruptcy”: “What is the need to recreate it?”