Valimai box office: Ajith Kumar defeats Vijay & Rajinikanth; collects Rs. 30 crore gross on opening day

The Ajith Kumar fronted action thriller, Valimai, has set the Tamil Nadu box office on fire as the early estimates suggest opening day in the vicinity of Rs. 30 crore gross. This is among the biggest openings of all time in Tamil Nadu, surpassing Vijay films like Master, Mersal, Bigil as also all Rajinikanth films like Darbar, Annaatthe, 2 Point 0 and Petta. Valimai has also emerged the biggest opener till date for Ajith Kumar by surpassing his previous best, Vishwasam and Vivegam, both of which clocked around Rs. 17 crore on opening day.

While the figures are still pouring in from Tamil Nadu, estimates suggest an earth-shattering opening in the range of Rs. 28 to 32 crore gross, making it the second biggest opener of all time in Tamil Nadu after AR Murugadoss’ Sarkar fronted by Vijay. However, to note, the Vijay film was a solo release on a big festival like Diwali and Valimai is a pure non-holiday release that too in the middle of a pandemic. The ticket pricing was also reasonable, a little lower than the general pre-covid norms.

With Valimai, Ajith has yet again proved his tag of being “the king of openings”, and the numbers also suggest that the Thala of Tamil Nadu doesn’t need a festival to clock record numbers. The shows across TN were putting up a houseful board, and this is a very enriching result from the trade in there, as multiple biggies are lined up for release in the coming few months. The net figures of Valimai from just one state would be upwards of Rs. 25 crore, which is yet again a big feat, attained by very few.

While there was a chatter across Tamil Nadu that the film would show a drop in biz towards night shows due to mixed reports in audience and critics, Valimai braved that and didn’t show any signs of slowing down even in evening and night, thereby resulting in a big day one total. Chennai City in Madurai was among the best faring circuits and the opening day footfall of Valimai is above Rs. 14 Lakhs.  With a Rs. 30 crore plus start, the movie is now headed for an extended weekend in the range of Rs. 75 crore, as Tamil Films tend to slow down after a historic start only to gain the stream again on Sunday. Tamil Nadu aside, the other marks like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Northern belts have all together collected another Rs. 7 crore gross, taking the national opening day total above the Rs. 35 crore mark.

With a mixed talk and too much action, it remains to be seen if the Sunday audience of families in tier 2 and tier 3 belts step out to watch the film, as they form a core of collections on Sundays. We shall update our readers with exact opening day figures soon, as we are still collating them from our sources. But yes, the rough sample of numbers suggests a mammoth result on opening day for Valimai. It’s wait and watch till then.

from Box Office Special Features - Bollywood Hungama https://ift.tt/2JzCUYl