With Rs 10 crore in Day 1 advance bookings, Rajinikanth’s Jailer is set to become the biggest Tamil release of 2023.
Going by the numbers from industry tracker Sacnilk, Jailer may even outdo big grossers Oppenheimer (English; Rs 14 crore at BO on Day 1) and Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani (Hindi: Rs 11.10 crore on Day 1) by a long chalk.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan had delivered the biggest Day 1 collection this year, logging Rs 57 crore.
Jailer will be released strategically on a Thursday across 3,000 screens in the country, in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.
Gautam Dutta, co-CEO, PVR INOX, said releasing films on Thursday is not new. Studios in the south, he pointed out, have often had releases, with strong casts, in the middle of the week to garner additional footfalls.
Pathaan too released on a Wednesday (January 25) to leverage the longish weekend with Republic Day falling on a Thursday. “In this case I can only assume that the producers want to leverage the longish weekend that August 15 on a Tuesday will create,” says Vanita Kohli-Khandekar, media expert and author.
The film marks Rajinikanth’s return to the silver screen after his last appearance in the 2021 film Annaatthe. Like Jailer, Annaatthe too opened on a Thursday and collected Rs 34.7 crore that day.
On Day 2, collections were was down to Rs 24.1 crore but by the end of its first week, they had crossed Rs 110 crore. This year has been particularly good for Tamil cinema.
As per Sacnilk, Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan 2 earned Rs 32 crore on its opening day with 59.94% Tamil occupancy, 10.20% Hindi occupancy and 33.23% Malayalam occupancy. Thalapathy Vijay’s Varisu grossed Rs 26.5 crore on day one of release, across India.
If media reports are to be believed, quite a few companies down south have declared Thursday a holiday so as to avoid leave letters piling up.
Tickets for the film are priced between Rs 800 and Rs 1,400 for shows that start as early as 6 am on August 10 in tech capital Bengaluru.
The city has allotted the highest number of shows for its opening day, film critic and trade analyst Ramesh Bala has said.
One can depend on a Tom Cruise (61), a Clint Eastwood (93), a Robert De Niro (79), or closer home Rajinikanth (72) and Amitabh Bachchan (80) to deliver, say experts. “They are stars and actors and their magic endures across generations.
“There is one generation that grew up watching them, another which grew up hearing about how good they are and seeing them in older different roles.
“It is simply the magic of their stardom, their craft and fandom,” says Kohli-Khandekar.