Jailer turns monster at box office; Rajinikanth only Tamil actor with 2 films in Rs 500-crore club

At 72, superstar Rajinikanth clearly remains unstoppable. Notably, the veteran actor, who has been in films for nearly five decades, continues to notch up milestones in his career.

With the huge success of Jailer, Rajnikanth has recorded the second ₹500 crore film of his career, his first being Shankar's 2.0. Also, Jailer has now surpassed all other Tamil films in collections globally with the exception of his own film, 2.0.

This success comes on the back of a lot of scepticism on whether Jailer will ever make the mark after Rajnikanth's market value had dipped. Especially after his movies Darbar and Annaatthe flopped at the box office. But, the septuagenarian actor has now proved that he is still in the reckoning, standing tall among the younger crop of actors. In fact, he shares this record of crossing the second ₹500 crore film mark with young stars like Yash (KGF franchise), Prabhas (Baahubali), NTR and Ram Charan (RRR).

Performance in Tamil Nadu

In his home turf Tamil Nadu, Jailer amassed more than ₹155 crores in gross collection in just 11 days. The film has now become the all-time third-highest grosser in the state, only below Kamal Haasan's Vikram (₹185 crore) and Ponniyin Selvan 1 (₹210 crore). Industry veterans point out that for the next two weeks, there are no big Tamil releases, and Jailer has a bright chance of breaking the record of PS-1.

Truly, the tide turned for Rajnikanth with Jailer. After Enthiran in 2010, none of his films had made a mark in the box office in his home state Tamil Nadu. Films like Kabali, 2.0 and Petta did perform well in the state, but were not top grossers — which was earlier a given for the superstar.

If Jailer does zoom past PS-1 in Tamil Nadu, a Rajinikanth film will then become the number-one grosser in the state after a gap of 13 years.

A theatre owner in south Tamil Nadu told The Federal this may well happen. For, he said enthusiastically, “On the eleventh day, Jailer was screened on eight screens in Tirunelveli (a tier-3 city), and all the shows were sold out. We believe that the film will have a long run in the state.”

Rajini displaces Vijay in Kerala

Before the release of PS-1 and Vikram, Kerala was considered to be Tamil actor Vijay's territory. Vijay has delivered phenomenal blockbusters in that state. Last year, both the Mani Ratnam directorial and the Kamal Haasan starrer set a new benchmark for Tamil films in Kerala, notching up revenues to the tune of ₹24.30 crore and ₹40.30 crore, respectively.

This year, Jailer amassed more than ₹46 crore and is poised to become the first-ever Tamil film to touch the ₹50 crore GBOC (gross box office collection) in the state.

Obviously, it helped that besides Rajinikanth's star power, Mohanlal's cameo in Jailer played its role in achieving this record-breaking run in Kerala.

All-time No 1 film in Karnataka

In Karnataka, Jailer has become the all-time number-one Tamil film, surpassing his 2.0. The film has raked in more than ₹58 crore in less than two weeks. Industry sources say that Jailer is still attracting a large number of audiences to the theatres during the weekends and therefore they predict a few more crores coming in before it goes off the big screen.

Kannada superstar Shivarajkumar's cameo presence is yet another major attraction for Jailer in Karnataka.

Second highest grosser in Telugu states

After mopping up nearly ₹68 crore GBOC in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Jailer has become the all-time second-highest grosser in the Telugu states, 2.0 being the first. Another interesting fact is that Jailer managed to perform well despite clashing with Telugu megastar Chiranjeevi's Bholaa Shankar.

North states unmoved

The Hindi version of Jailer hasn't clicked in a big way in the North. This is thanks to the lack of visibility and heavy competition in the form of Sunny Deol’s Gadar 2 and Akshay Kumar’s OMG 2. The Tamil and Hindi versions of Jailer have collected just more than ₹11 crore in North India.

Jackpot for overseas distributors

Jailer has delivered for overseas distributors. They had bought the film for a reasonable price but they reaped gold from the Rajinikanth starrer.

In the US, the film yielded ₹51.5 crore GBOC in just seven days. In the UAE-GCC market, it mopped up around ₹48.5 crores; in Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka, it picked up nearly ₹42 crore. In Australia and New Zealand, the film grossed around ₹9 crore.

Altogether, the film's grand gross collection in the overseas territories works out to around ₹180 crore.

Return on investment

Though 2.0 (which made more than ₹700 crore gross) is Rajini’s career-highest grosser, the film incurred losses for the producers Lyca Productions. This was largely because of the exorbitant budget on which it was made. On the other hand, Jailer, made on a more reasonable budget, has offered a substantial return on investment. It is predicted to become the most profitable Rajinikanth film since 2010.

According to industry experts, all the parties involved have taken home massive profits and Rajinikanth, at 72, has proved that he is still the boss in the Indian film industry.