Ramayana passes ₹1,100 crore worldwide, Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer heads for a $20M start, and Irma P. Hall dies at 91

Ramayana: Part One kept a steady pace on its second Friday. Trade tracker Sacnilk put Day 9 (13 November) at ₹47.85 crore net in India across 22,993 shows, a 10.6% drop from Thursday’s ₹53.50 crore, with average occupancy of 32.1%. Hindi brought ₹36.25 crore, Malayalam ₹3.25 crore, Kannada ₹3 crore, Tamil ₹2.75 crore and Telugu ₹2.60 crore. That lifts the nine-day India net total to ₹612.45 crore and India gross to ₹732.20 crore. Sacnilk estimates another ₹25 crore from overseas on the day, for an overseas gross of ₹378.50 crore and a worldwide gross of ₹1,110.70 crore. These are trade estimates, and Sacnilk notes its overseas figures are rough and may change.

The film is also travelling unusually well in Asian markets where the epic is part of local culture, Hindustan Times reported. It took about $100,000 from its 11 November premiere in Indonesia, the best start for an Indian film there; just under $1 million in a week in Thailand; a $150,000 opening weekend in Cambodia, again a record for an Indian title; about $900,000 in Malaysia; and $350,000 in Vietnam, a market where Indian films rarely pass $20,000. In Nepal it earned NPR 12.80 crore in its extended first week, already the sixth-highest total for an Indian film there. In North America, Deadline projected a second weekend of about $5 million from 1,110 theatres for Sony’s release, down 44%, for a running total near $23.6 million by Sunday.

Ramayana and Dhurandhar will both open sections at the 57th International Film Festival of India, which runs from 20 to 28 November. NFDC managing director Dhiraj Singh told a press conference that Dhurandhar will open the Indian Panorama feature section and the Ladakhi film Becoming the non-feature section, while Ramayana will open a special BRICS focus with films from all 11 member countries, Hindustan Times reported. Festival director Ashutosh Gowariker said this year’s theme is “Stories without borders,” adding: “A story is one of the few things that can cross such a line without a passport.” The festival opens with Paweł Pawlikowski’s Polish-language Fatherland and closes with Singapore’s We Are All Strangers; it drew 1,900 entries from 137 countries and will show 159 international films from 87 countries and 76 Indian films in 18 languages, with Spain as Country of Honour and Russia as partner country.

Johnny Depp’s Ebenezer is on course to top the North American box office. Deadline reported that Paramount’s PG-13 take on A Christmas Carol, directed by Ti West with Depp as Scrooge, made $7.1 million on Friday including $1.5 million from Thursday previews, pointing to an opening of $20 million or more from 3,535 theatres. That is in line with the starts of Depp’s Black Mass ($22.6 million) and Public Enemies ($25.2 million), and Paramount is hoping for a similar $20 million from 63 overseas markets. Critics are cooler, at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it 4.5 stars on PostTrak. Deadline put the film’s reported net cost at $38 million. The Cat in the Hat looked set for second place with about $12 million. These are Friday estimates; final weekend numbers come on Sunday.

Sony is launching a full Best Picture campaign for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Deadline reported. The Destin Daniel Cretton film is already the highest-grossing release ever at the domestic box office and is just shy of $41 million from becoming the first to reach $1 billion in North America, yet awards tracker Gold Derby ranks it only 36th for a nomination. Sony film chief Tom Rothman told Deadline: “Are you telling me that there are 10 films this year that are better than this film?” The studio has hired awards consultants and plans screenings from just before Thanksgiving in Los Angeles and New York as well as London, Paris, Madrid, Copenhagen, Sydney, Rome, Mexico City, Berlin and Tokyo, plus a re-release before the end of the year. No Spider-Man film, live-action or animated, has ever been nominated for Best Picture.

Actor Jon Voight, who serves as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Hollywood, met Trump at the White House on Friday to push for a federal film and TV incentive, Variety reported, even as a telecommunications outage grounded flights across the United States. The proposed bill would give a 20% to 30% rebate on domestic labour costs for films and TV shows. While Voight was still in the room, Trump posted on Truth Social in support of the Motion Picture, Television, and Entertainment Revitalization Act, writing: “Meetings are being set up, routinely, with the Leaders of both Parties in order to, GET THIS DONE!” Senator Adam Schiff replied on X that “it’s time for Congress to pass a federal film incentive.” Voight’s producing partner Steven Paul said the actor “was crying by the end of the meeting.” Variety noted that Politico had quoted Representative Don Beyer as saying the chances of passing a tax bill in the current lame-duck session were “pretty low.”

Irma P. Hall, the American actor best known as Big Mama in the 1997 film Soul Food, has died in Dallas at 91, the Associated Press reported. Her family announced the death and gave no cause. Hall taught English and foreign languages in Dallas public schools for more than two decades before acting full-time, and her first major film role came at 60 in A Family Thing opposite James Earl Jones and Robert Duvall. Soul Food earned her an NAACP Image Award and a return to the role in the TV series, and she won a Cannes Jury Prize for playing landlady Marva Munson opposite Tom Hanks in the Coen brothers’ The Ladykillers (2004). Her other credits include Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Beloved, Patch Adams and Collateral. “She started as a teacher in the classroom but ended up being a teacher to the world,” her daughter, Irma Hall Crayton, said.

In Mumbai, film producer Jayanta Mukherjee, husband of actor Moushumi Chatterjee and son of the composer Hemant Kumar, has died at his home in Khar after age-related illness, Hindustan Times reported. “He passed away last evening due to age-related issues at his residence in Khar,” BN Tiwari, president of the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, told PTI. Mukherjee, who was in his late seventies, produced Mazaaq (1975), Do Ladke Dono Kadke (1979) and Biwi Aur Makan, and was associated with the 1992 TV show Talaash. He married Moushumi in 1972 and is survived by her and their daughter Megha; their elder daughter Payal died in 2019.

A wave of shootings and extortion threats has Bollywood stars hiring more bodyguards, AFP reported. Police have linked the latest violence, including gunfire aimed at Tiger Shroff’s car in Mumbai in October, to the gang of the jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi; 13 people have been arrested over that shooting, and actor Tusshar Kapoor has faced an alleged $600,000 extortion demand. Amitabh Bachchan recently greeted fans from behind a bulletproof enclosure, and security was stepped up at Shah Rukh Khan’s home for his birthday. “Stars are moving around with bodyguards on either side,” said actor Ronit Roy, who runs a security agency, adding that requests now cover family members and children too. Author S. Hussain Zaidi said opportunists were exploiting gangsters’ notoriety and that the 1990s era of underworld control was not back, while producer Boney Kapoor said he expected the wave to be “short-lived.”

The Pakistani drama Dar-e-Nijaat remains one of the most debated shows of the season. TV host and former model Nadia Hussain called Zaryab, Durefishan Saleem’s character, “a complete red flag” in an Instagram video, saying she “needs therapy” rather than a husband and that Sheheryar Munawar’s Abu Bakar deserves better, Images reported. Durefishan herself told Khaleej Times that the story explores Zaryab’s choices without endorsing her suffering: “Love should allow you to evolve, not require you to disappear.” The actress, recently named the new Lux girl, was also frank about the industry: “Channels own everything, and the death of independent producers and the dictation by channels is frustrating as an actor for me.” Separately, The Express Tribune reported that she asked fans on Instagram to stop sending gifts: “If you ever feel like giving me something, just write me a little handwritten note. I promise, I’ll treasure that forever.”