August 16 may have been a working day, but Rajinikanth's 'Jailer' and Sunny Deol's 'Gadar 2' not only did well, but also left the Akshay Kumar-starrer 'OMG 2' and Chiranjeevi's 'Bholaa Shankar' way behind.
At the end of Day 6, 'Gadar 2' was sitting on a worldwide collection of Rs 338.50 crore (gross receipts across India, Rs 308.50 crore, which includes the 18 per cent GST component, plus Rs 30 crore overseas).
Interestingly, Tara Singh's one-man war against Pakistan seems to have touched a chord in Chennai, for the southern metropolis saw a 73.75 per cent occupancy in theatres for 'Gadar 2'. Pakistan-bashing, clearly, works as much in the south as it does in the north, that too on a working Wednesday.
'Jailer', being a Tamil film, doesn't have as big a footprint as 'Gadar 2', yet with Thalaiva Rajinikanth headlining it, by its seventh day, it had amassed Rs 420 crore (all-India gross receipts, Rs 264.70 crore, plus Rs 155.30 crore overseas).
Of course, the film's domestic collections have come mainly from the four southern states, led by Tamil Nadu (Rs 121.60 crore), followed by Andhra Pradesh / Telangana (Rs 53.50 crore), Karnataka (Rs 44.40 crore) and Kerala (Rs 35.90 crore).
But Rajini's global fan following has ensured an overseas collection more than five times higher than that of 'Gadar 2', enabling it to be India's No. 1 movie today.
'OMG 2', in contrast, has just crossed the Rs 100-crore mark (Rs 108.80 crore, including all-India gross receipts of Rs 93.80 and an overseas collection of Rs 15 crore), even as 'Bholaa Shankar' is languishing at Rs 39 crore (all-India gross receipts, Rs 33.40 crore, plus Rs 5.60 crore earned overseas).
'Jailer' was massively hyped across South India, with offices in Tamil Nadu even giving a day off to their employees to watch the film on August 10 upon its release. Rajinikanth's persona in the movie is that of an old jailer hunting down a notorious gang lord and mercilessly eliminating his gang members.
Regarding the magic of 'Jailer' at the box office, trade expert Ramesh Bala said: "Rajinikanth is a Superstar. The 'Superstar' tag alone is enough to garner it all the attention it needs. And then, he also benefits from worldwide recognition."
Continuing his analysis, Bala said: "Apart from Rajinikanth, the movie has good content, it is different, and has other famous faces from the South, notably Malayalam superstar Mohanlal and Ramya Krishnan. But when you mention Rajinikanth, words such as swag, cool, attitude come to mind, and his 50-year-plus career and humble nature also help."
Bala expects the lifetime collection of 'Jailer' to touch Rs 600 crore, which means it will surpass last year's 'Ponniyin Selvan 1' and 'Vikram', and stand just behind Rajini's '2.0'.
'Gadar 2' is not expected to cross Rs 450-500 crore, but its makers, having produced the film reportedly for Rs 75 crore, are already laughing all the way to the bank.
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