‘Thunivu’ beats ‘Varisu’ at first weekend box office; top 10 all time highest grossing Tamil movies in US

Our Correspondent
Bengaluru, Jan. 16 (EMN): Ajith Kumar’s “Thunivu” has done well at the US box office, outperforming Vijay’s latest film “Varisu”.

Released with huge expectations last week, “Varisu” raked in $339,337 on the first day (including premieres), while “Thunivu” collected $416,360 on the release day in North America.

However, the box office collection of both the Tamil films dropped on Thursday with the Vijay-starrer earning $62,270 and Ajith’s flick collecting $70,414.

Interestingly, “Varisu” ($132,412) performed better than “Thunivu” on Friday ($118,668). As expected, business of both the movies witnessed a jump on Saturday with “Varisu” earning $205,936 and “Thunivu” – $179,570

The early reports coming from the trade trackers claimed that Vijay-starrer had collected $164,000 on Sunday, while Ajith’s flick raked in $141,000. The five-day collection of Thalapathy and Thala’s flicks at the US box office stands at $901,000 and $926,000, respectively.

Both the movies are predicted to join $1 million club in the US over the next few days. Looking at the current trend, Vijay-starrer has picked up the momentum after a slow start. 

Top 10 All Time Highest Grossing Tamil Movies in US

Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus “Ponniyin Selvan” tops the list of all time highest-grossing Tamil movies in the US with a lifetime collection of $6,700,372. It is followed by Rajinikanth’s “2.0” and “Kabali”, raking in $5,509,317 and $4,585,808, respectively.

Kamal Haasan’s 2022 blockbuster “Vikram” is in the fourth place with a lifetime business of $2,858,359, followed by Rajinikanth’s “Petta” which earned $2,553,065.

It is followed by “Endhiran” ($1,549,053), “Kaala” ($1,913,110), “Mersal” ($1,830,866), “Darbar” ($1,679,271), and “24” ($1,471,997).

‘Thunivu’ vs ‘Varisu’ at Tamil Nadu box office

At home territory, Ajith’s “Thunivu” and Vijay’s “Varisu” have grossed over Rs 50 crore. Both the movies enjoyed good footfalls at the theatres during the weekend. With the Tamil Nadu government giving permission to have special shows across the state for two more days, the flicks are expected to collect more.

The screen count of the movies have been increased to 508 (Varisu) and 530 (Thunivu) from the earlier 420 odd screens.