Thamma advance booking day 1: With ticket sales of Rs 88 lakh, Dinesh Vijan’s film’s block bookings take collection to Rs 3.8 cr; expected to open at Rs 30 cr

As per early data from Sacnilk, ticket sales have been underwhelming. So far, approximately 24,636 tickets have been sold for the Hindi version (as of 2 pm, October 18) and just 38 for the Telugu version. The film has grossed Rs 70.31 lakh organically across India, while the total collection, including block bookings, stands at Rs 3.36 crore — nearly four times the organic revenue.

Occupancy rates remain dismal in most Indian states. In Andhra Pradesh, the film has earned Rs 1.22 lakh from 22 shows solely through block bookings, with actual occupancy at zero. Similar trends have been observed in states like Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Goa, where real audience turnout ranges between 0–1%, and collections are largely driven by block bookings. Notably, the film has secured around 1,700 shows in Maharashtra and 1,333 shows in Delhi, with block bookings contributing Rs 1.7 crore. Block booking refers to the trend of large-scale purchase of tickets by producers to inflate box office numbers.

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Thamma marks the sixth entry in Dinesh Vijan’s horror universe following Stree, Roohi, Bhediya, Munjya, and Stree 2. While Stree 2 was a bonafide hit and Munjya emerged as a sleeper success, Roohi and Bhediya failed to strike a chord with audiences.

When Dinesh Vijan was under fire for blocking seats

Dinesh Vijan and his production house was recently under fire when film trade analyst Komal Nahta accused him of doing a disservice to film industry by blocking seats. In his YouTube video, Komal shared: “When Dinesh Vijan started this trend of block booking, on a huge scale by spending crores, I’d written in my articles then that he’s doing such a disservice to the industry he doesn’t realise it. The direct and true impact of that is now, the newspapers are questioning genuine hits.”

He added, “The newspapers now think a film can’t be a hit anymore. If every film is doing well, then there’s something wrong. Because Dinesh Vijan, you’ve drilled it into people’s heads that there’s nothing like a genuine hit anymore. His own Chhaava, a super-duper hit, is also being pointed fingers at: is it such a big hit? So you’ve done disservice to your film also.” Due to Dinesh Vijan’s blocking of seats, several fingers were pointed at his films Chhavva and Munjya, which were declared box office hits.

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