Vettaiyan box office collection: Only a Rajinikanth film can truly encapsulate the spirit, energy and grandeur of the Tamil word thiruvizha (festival). Though he has been around for over four decades, people are yet to find the rightful successor to the throne that they gifted Rajinikanth in the 1970s and the hype surrounding his upcoming movie Vettaiyan, helmed by Jai Bhim director TJ Gnanavel, is a testament to his enduring appeal.

Nevertheless, it needs to be mentioned here that Vettaiyan hasn’t quite matched the pre-release business of his last outing Jailer (2023), which grossed Rs 18.24 crore in India till the time of its first day first show (FDFS), according to industry tracker Sacnilk. But the makers can heave a sigh of relief since Vettaiyan has already crossed the pre-booking collection of director Shankar’s Kamal Haasan-starrer Indian 2 (Rs 10.98 crore).

As of 6 pm on Wednesday, the advance bookings for Vettaiyan across India stood at Rs 11.71 crore, with 6,00,410 tickets sold for 8,975 shows. While the Tamil version brought in Rs 10.85 crore, the Telugu and Hindi versions added Rs 84 lakh and Rs 93,120, respectively. The film has reportedly been made on a hefty budget of Rs 300 crore.

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However, given Rajinikanth’s current success streak, with Jailer becoming the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2023 and the sixth-highest-grossing Indian film of the year, Vettaiyan is expected to see a surge in collections as it nears its FDFS. Nonetheless, whether it can match the opening day worldwide gross of recent films like Prabhas’ Kalki 2898 AD (Rs 191.5 crore) and Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire (Rs 178.7 crore), Jr NTR’s Devara: Part 1 (Rs 172 crore) or “Thalapathy” Vijay’s Leo (Rs 148.5 crore) remains to be seen.

While Rajinikanth’s Jailer recorded a domestic gross of Rs 56.6 crore on its release day, his movies prior to that such as Annaatthe (2021), Darbar (2020), Petta (2019) and 2.0 (2018) registered Rs 34.70 crore, Rs 35.70 crore, Rs 22.50 crore and Rs 60.25 crore, respectively, as per Sacnilk. When Jailer ended its theatrical run with a worldwide gross of Rs 604.5 crore, Annaatthe, Darbar, Petta and 2.0 recorded Rs 172 crore, Rs 247.80 crore, Rs 232.92 crore and Rs 723.30 crore, respectively.

Also starring Amitabh Bachchan, Fahadh Faasil, Rana Daggubati, Manju Warrier, Ritika Singh and Dushara Vijayan in key roles, Vettaiyan will hit the screens worldwide on Thursday.