Border 2 tops Dhurandhar in advance bookings ahead of Republic Day release

Bollywood war drama Border 2, starring Sunny Deol, Varun Dhawan, Diljit Dosanjh and Ahan Shetty, has overtaken Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar in advance booking figures ahead of its worldwide release.

Trade experts and industry trackers said Border 2’s pre-sales crossed Dhurandhar’s benchmark on BookMyShow, India’s largest ticketing platform.

Box office tracking portal Sacnilk reported that Border 2 sold more than 2.24 lakh tickets on BookMyShow in the final day before release, surpassing Dhurandhar’s pre-sales numbers. During the last spike in bookings, the film reportedly sold up to 50 seats per minute.

Advance bookings for Border 2 opened on Monday. Trade sources said the film sold over 4 lakh tickets by Friday morning. Estimates put the film’s first-day advance booking gross at around ₹12.5 crore, including a little over ₹5 lakh from premium formats such as Dolby Cine, 4DX and IMAX. Sacnilk data also indicated that the film’s first-day advance booking revenue rose sharply on Thursday, climbing from around ₹6 crore to ₹12 crore within 12 hours.

By Friday morning, Border 2’s pre-sales reportedly crossed ₹10 crore, moving ahead of Dhurandhar, which collected just over ₹9 crore in advance bookings for its opening day. However, it has not yet surpassed Sunny Deol’s earlier record of ₹17.5 crore, set by Gadar 2 three years ago.

Border 2 has a runtime of 3 hours and 16 minutes and is expected to see a wide release across India. The film is scheduled to open on more than 5,500 screens, backed by over 14,000 shows nationwide. Most bookings so far have come from Hindi 2D screenings, according to pre-release data.

Industry analysts attributed the strong advance sales to the sequel’s patriotic theme and nostalgia around the Border franchise, which began with the 1997 film.

With the Republic Day holiday weekend approaching, early projections estimate Border 2 could open in the ₹35–40 crore range.