Bookings for two of the big-ticket May 1 releases – Natural Star Nani’s HIT 3 and Suriya’s Retro – opened across single screens and multiplexes in Bengaluru on April 28. Early in the day, before multiplexes opened bookings, Retro had a flying start, registering close to 13,000 ticket sales and a pre-sale gross of Rs 0.30 cr.

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#RETRO - 12,700+ tickets Pre-booked in Bengaluru City even before the national plexes opened bookings. Pre-sales has surpassed ₹25 Lakhs gross mark

👉 National plexes bookings to go live in a while@Suriya_offl @SwagathOffl pic.twitter.com/r6IR4mDODe

— Karnataka Talkies (@KA_Talkies) April 28, 2025

Shows for the Karthik Subbaraj (Petta , Mercury, Pizza) directorial begin at 9 am only, with the team skipping the early morning show option. Theatres in Bengaluru do not need special permission to operate shows post 6 am, a facility that the Ajith-starrer Good Bad Ugly also skipped. The Tamil original version of Retro has around 200-odd shows at the moment.

HIT 3 first show at 6.15 am in Bengaluru

Eega star Nani’s third instalment in the HIT franchise, HIT 3, will release with The Telugu original and Kannada dubbed versions. Bookings for about 180 shows have opened for the Telugu version as of 10 pm on April 28, with more expected to be added. The film is beginning its box office hunt with a slight advantage over Retro, with the earliest shows beginning at 6.15 am. However, according to independent trackers, HIT 3 is behind Retro on advance bookings.

#HIT3 entire Karnataka theatre list is here. Bookings live in Bengaluru City

👉 FDFS from 6:30 AM onwards @NameisNani @films_kumar pic.twitter.com/2PkMlXgyEX

— Karnataka Talkies (@KA_Talkies) April 27, 2025

There are no major Kannada releases this week, but films like Yuddhakaanda and Firefly, which have been in theatres for only a few days will face reduction in shows. Krishna Ajai Rao, the actor-producer of Yuddhakaanda has already voiced his concern over multiplexes taking away shows of Yuddhakaanda, which has been showing organic growth at the box office.

While HIT 3 is releasing in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi, Retro gets a Tamil and Telugu version only. Nani’s film is expected to dominate the Andhra/Telangana belt, while Retro does Tamil Nadu. The two films will be neck-to-neck in Karnataka, while the situation in Kerala is yet to be ascertained, given that Mohanlal’s Thudarum, which released on April 25, is going great guns.