Hrithik Roshan's Fighter earns over ₹5 crore in advance bookings; film banned in Gulf countries except UAE

Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone-starrer action-thriller Fighter is all set for a flying start at the box office. The Siddharth Anand directorial will hit the screens on Thursday (January 25), a day ahead of the 75th Republic Day.

The film’s advance ticket sales have gone up, with over 1.6 lakh tickets sold for day one, minting ₹5.29 crore, according to sacnilk.com.

The film's 2D and 3D shows have sold a total of 67,498 and 89,709 tickets, respectively till 11 am on Wednesday.

Among the key contributors to the theatre occupancy are Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Telangana, and West Bengal.

"#Fighter has sold approx 74K tickets at the national chains with 1 Day to go. #Dunki was somewhere around 152K at this point. #Dunki final advance booking closed at 226K, #Fighter expected to close between 120K to 135K at National Chains," trade expert Nishit Shaw wrote on X.

He added that the second-day advance booking of the film is also in the same range.

However, Fighter, which also stars Anil Kapoor, Karan Singh Grover, and Akshay Oberoi, has been banned in Gulf countries, except UAE.

“A huge setback for #Fighter! It is officially banned across Middle East regions for theatrical release. However #UAE will release the film,” industry tracker Sreedhar Pillai said.

Giving advance booking status of the film in UAE, Nishit Shaw said, “Around 1422 tickets sold for #Fighter at VOX (UAE) across 245 shows. Estimated Gross: $22.5K Best in Yas Mall Abu Dhabi with 349 tickets, Burjuman with 224 tickets, and CC Deira with 207 tickets.”

The trailer of the film was released last week and has received over four crore views on YouTube.

Revolving around the Indian Air Force (IAF) officers, the three-minute trailer gave viewers an adrenaline rush of patriotic fervour. It featured Group Captain Rakesh Jai Singh (Anil Kapoor) setting up a quick response team -- including Squadron Leader Shamsher Pathania (Hrithik) and Squadron Leader Minal Rathore (Deepika) -- to carry out retaliatory airstrikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) after the deadliest terror attack on Indian forces in Pulwama -- mirroring a real attack from 2019.