Ramayana: Rise of a Legend, Nitesh Tiwari’s retelling of the Hindu epic, opened at No. 1 in the UK and Ireland with £2.1m ($2.8m) over the weekend of 6–8 November, the first Indian film ever to top that chart, Variety reported from Comscore figures. Released in India as Ramayana: Part One, it finished ahead of Disney’s Wild Horse Nine and pushed Godzilla Minus Zero into third place.
The ceiling for Indian cinema in Britain had been second place, reached by RRR in 2022, Pathaan and Jawan in 2023 and Dhurandhar: The Revenge this year. Final North American figures published on Monday add a second signal: Sony’s Sunday estimate for the film proved too low, while the one for Godzilla Minus Zero proved too high.
Key facts
- UK and Ireland, 6–8 November: No. 1 with £2.1m ($2.8m), Comscore; the first Indian film to top the chart
- North America, Friday–Sunday actual: $8,939,505 from 1,433 cinemas, fourth place, 3.3% above Sony’s Sunday figure
- Godzilla Minus Zero, North American actual: $30,587,672, 3.2% below the $31.6m Sunday estimate, still No. 1
- Worldwide opening: $55.7m, studio-reported, of which $32m from India
- Eight named overseas markets: $9.09m, or 79% of the $11.5m from 37 markets outside India and North America, FilmBunch’s calculation
Monday’s actuals in North America
Box Office Mojo’s final weekend chart moved the two Asian openings in opposite directions. Godzilla Minus Zero, released by GKids, ended Friday to Sunday on $30,587,672 from 3,254 cinemas, a $9,400 average. That is about $1m, or 3.2%, below the $31.6m reported on Sunday, the figure FilmBunch’s report on the opening carried. The record stands: it is still by far the biggest North American opening for a live-action foreign-language film, well clear of the $17.8m with which Zhang Yimou’s Hero opened in 2002.
Ramayana moved the other way. Sony had put its Friday-to-Sunday gross at about $8.65m; the final figure is $8,939,505, 3.3% higher, for a $6,238 average and fourth place behind Godzilla Minus Zero, The Cat in the Hat ($20.0m) and Angel’s Drummer Boy ($9.42m). Including its opening day on Thursday 5 November, Sony reported a four-day start of $12.2m, the second-best in North America for an Indian film after the $14m of Dhurandhar: The Revenge in March.
Where the money came from
Sony, which handles the film in North America and 37 other markets, and the producer Prime Focus Studios put the worldwide opening at $55.7m, second only to Godzilla Minus Zero’s $63m. India supplied $32m, North America $12.2m and the other 37 markets $11.5m. The film was booked on more than 10,000 screens in over 130 countries, with dubbed versions in 17 languages, according to the studio.
| Market | Opening (studio-reported, USD) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| India | $32m | Thursday–Sunday |
| US and Canada | $12.2m | four days; $8.94m Friday–Sunday actual |
| UK | $3.0m | four days; Comscore Friday–Sunday £2.1m ($2.8m) |
| UAE | $2.2m | |
| Australia | $1.9m | |
| Germany | $625,000 | |
| Thailand | $550,000 | |
| Nepal | $500,000 | |
| Netherlands | $240,000 | |
| South Africa | $75,000 |
The eight overseas markets in the table account for $9.09m, or 79% of the $11.5m earned outside India and North America; the UK alone supplied 26%. In the UK, Thailand, the Netherlands and South Africa these were record openings for an Indian film, according to the studio. Godzilla Minus Zero held No. 1 in Mexico and most of Latin America, Deadline reported. Ramayana’s next wave starts in Indonesia on 11 November and in Hong Kong and Mexico a day later.
India’s holiday Monday
At home the film is building through Diwali. The tracker Sacnilk, cited by The Hollywood Reporter India, estimates ₹107.5 crore ($11.4m) nett for Monday 9 November, a 91.5% rise on Sunday, taking the five-day India nett to ₹346.35 crore ($36.9m) and the worldwide gross to ₹663.9 crore ($70.7m). These are tracker estimates; neither Prime Focus Studios nor Sony has issued an India figure since the weekend.
What the figures do not show
Published accounts of the Comscore chart mix pounds and dollars for the films below Ramayana, so FilmBunch gives their positions rather than their grosses. Prime Focus Studios has not published a budget; Indian reports put the two-part project at ₹4,000 crore ($426m).
Our reading
The UK result matters because of how it was earned. Indian films had stopped at second place four times. Winning a weekend that also brought a new Martin McDonagh film and a Godzilla sequel suggests Ramayana may be reaching beyond the diaspora audience that usually carries Indian releases in Britain, although Comscore does not show who bought the tickets. Sony’s cautious Sunday figure in North America points the same way.
The test is the second weekend, in the UK and in India’s Diwali run. A film on this scale needs the long multiple that Indian holiday releases often achieve at home, and the next official figure from Sony or Prime Focus Studios, rather than tracker estimates, will show how close it is. For Godzilla Minus Zero, now past ¥2.5bn in Japan, a North American base $1m lower changes little.
Sources
- Variety, Ramayana tops UK and Ireland box office (Comscore weekend figures), 9 November 2026
- Box Office Mojo, North American weekend 45 of 2026 (6–8 November), actuals, checked 10 November 07:08 CET
- Variety, Godzilla Minus Zero and Ramayana at the international box office (studio-reported territory figures), 8 November 2026
- Deadline, global weekend box office: Godzilla Minus Zero and Ramayana, 8 November 2026
- Patrick Frater (Asian Film Business), four Asian films in the worldwide top ten, Sony's Friday–Sunday North American figure
- The Hollywood Reporter India, Ramayana day 5 box office (Sacnilk estimates), 10 November 2026
- Koimoi, Ramayana overseas weekend report (UK four-day figure), 9 November 2026
- Prime Focus Studios, release on the worldwide opening of Ramayana: Part One, 5 November 2026
- European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates, 9 November 2026