Ustaad Bhagat Singh vs Dhurandhar 2 USA Box Office Advance Booking Collection and Day 0 Trends
Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar 2 is witnessing a massive box office storm in the USA, leaving Pawan Kalyan’s Ustaad Bhagat Singh in the dust. Can the Power Star recover?
Monday, 15 March 2026. The air is thick with anticipation, but if you look at the screens in the trade offices of Hyderabad and Mumbai today, the numbers tell a story that many didn’t see coming. We are exactly four days away from one of the biggest box office face-offs of the year.
On one side, we have the “Power Star” Pawan Kalyan reuniting with director Harish Shankar after 14 long years for Ustaad Bhagat Singh.
On the other hand, Ranveer Singh is returning as the spy Jaskirat Singh Rangi in Dhurandhar 2, the sequel to the 1300-crore global hit.
While the Telugu states are ready for a mass festival, the North American market has already picked its winner, and the gap is frankly terrifying. Ranveer Singh isn’t just leading; he is currently crushing the competition with pre-sales that are six times higher than the Pawan Kalyan starrer.
Ustaad Bhagat Singh Vs Dhurandhar 2 USA Box Office Advance Booking
The broader context here is about more than just numbers; it is about a shift in how the Indian diaspora is consuming “Mass” vs “Spy” cinema.
Dhurandhar 2 is arriving on the back of a massive legacy, while Ustaad Bhagat Singh is carrying the weight of being an official remake of Thalapathy Vijay’s Theri. This “Remake Factor” seems to be biting hard.
Pawan Kalyan’s previous outing, They Call Him OG, set a benchmark that Ustaad Bhagat Singh is struggling to even look at. To add fuel to the fire, director Harish Shankar recently had to issue a public apology to Mahesh Babu fans after an accidental “Thadastu” tweet regarding breaking the Superstar’s records went viral for all the wrong reasons.
Is the Power Star’s overseas crown slipping, or is the North American audience simply over the remake culture?
It is a question that is haunting Tollywood distributors right now. While Pawan Kalyan remains the king of the domestic market, the USA premiere trends for Ustaad Bhagat Singh are currently at just 8.4% of what They Call Him OG achieved during its pre-release phase. We are looking at a scenario where a Bollywood sequel is effectively “butchering” the opening of a major Telugu superstar’s film in a territory that used to be his fortress.
The narrative timeline of these bookings is a study in contrasts.
Dhurandhar 2 has already crossed the $1.43 million mark in North America, with its premiere and Day 1 advance sales sitting pretty at $2.2 million. In terms of actual tickets, Ranveer Singh’s film has sold over 74,000 tickets in the USA alone. According to Filmibeat, the film is on track to beat the premiere ticket sales of Pushpa 2, which stood at 81,340. This is high-octane performance at its finest.
In contrast, Ustaad Bhagat Singh is finding the climb much steeper.
As of March 15, the film has earned approximately $182,641 from 7,914 tickets in the USA. Even when including the rest of North America, the total barely touches the $200,000 mark. For a film that needs to reach a massive worldwide breakeven target, these early signals from the West are causing visible concern among the trade circles.
While the trailer, featuring Pawan Kalyan’s iconic line “Ichi Padese Gotram, Iragadeese Nakshatram,” has received a strong response online, it hasn’t yet translated into the vertical spike in bookings that the makers were hoping for.
The domestic situation is slightly better, with Pawan Kalyan expected to hit a major post-COVID milestone. He is currently just 12.51 crore away from reaching the 700-crore worldwide gross mark in the post-pandemic era, a feat he will likely achieve on the very first day of Ustaad Bhagat Singh’s release.
However, with Dhurandhar 2 aiming for a 100-crore opening day in India, the pressure is on the Gabbar Singh duo to prove that their brand of “Mass” can still compete with a pan-India spy thriller.
The ending of this saga will be written on March 19, the day of Ugadi.
While Ranveer Singh seems to have secured the overseas bag, Pawan Kalyan has the undying loyalty of the Telugu heartland. Will the domestic “Mass” wave be enough to offset the overseas “Spy” storm? Only the Thursday morning shows will tell.
From where I sit, this is a classic case of Franchise Power vs Remake Fatigue.
Dhurandhar 2 is riding the wave of a 1000-crore predecessor, whereas Ustaad Bhagat Singh is fighting the “we have seen this before” tag because it’s a remake.
For Pawan Kalyan, this isn’t a disaster yet—the man can pull 100 crores in his sleep in the Telugu states. But for the USA distributors who paid a premium, the current $200k vs $2.2M gap is a nightmare.
Look forward to the domestic numbers; that’s where the Power Star will fight back. But in the USA? Ranveer Singh has already planted his flag.
Nitesh Mishra – Box Office Analyst
Question For You: Do you think Pawan Kalyan’s stardom is enough to overcome the “remake” tag, or is Ranveer Singh the new king of the USA box office? Let me know in the comments!
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About the Author
Nitesh Mishra
— Business Analyst (Since 2017)
As a Movie buff with years of experience in film blogging, writing and box office analysis, I specialise in delivering accurate box office insights, movie updates OTT deals and Business Insights. [X, Instagram, Reddit, Threds]