Jailer 2 is the highest-grossing Tamil film ever made. It passed 2.0, which had held the record since 2018, and it did it in under a fortnight. Nobody can tell you precisely what it has earned, which we will come to, but the record itself is not in doubt.
The Rajinikanth film, directed by Nelson Dilipkumar for Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Pictures, opened on Thursday 15 October. Koimoi called the record on 26 October at ₹715.48 crore worldwide in eleven days, against 2.0’s ₹691 crore lifetime. Sacnilk called it on 27 October at ₹733.35 crore in twelve days. Same claim, two numbers, eighteen crore apart.
The Karnataka line is the one worth reading twice
Here is the territory split from Sacnilk’s own film page, gross, through the second week.
- Tamil Nadu: ₹192.75 crore
- Andhra Pradesh and Telangana: ₹90.75 crore
- Karnataka: ₹85.55 crore
- Kerala: ₹73.65 crore
- Rest of India: ₹52.30 crore
Karnataka out-earned Kerala on a Rajinikanth film by close to twelve crore, and came within five crore of the combined Telugu states. Now put that next to the language split, net: Tamil ₹293.60 crore, Telugu ₹80.30 crore, Hindi ₹42.65 crore, Kannada ₹6.45 crore.
So Karnataka generated the third-largest territory gross in the country while the Kannada dub contributed almost nothing. This state watched Jailer 2 in Tamil and Telugu. Bengaluru’s multiplex audience does not need a film dubbed into Kannada to turn up for it, and the Kannada-dub business that distributors keep pricing into their acquisitions is, on this evidence, close to a rounding error.
That is worth sitting with every time somebody in this city argues about screen allocation for Kannada films. The money Karnataka sent to Sun Pictures this fortnight is more than most Kannada films will see in a year, and it did not pass through a Kannada print.
The records, as claimed
Sacnilk’s list: first Tamil film past ₹700 crore worldwide, on day eleven. Fastest Tamil film to ₹300 crore, ₹400 crore, ₹500 crore and ₹600 crore worldwide, in three, four, six and eight days. Highest India net for a Tamil film across all languages, ₹408.15 crore in twelve days. Highest overseas gross for a Tamil film, ₹255.50 crore in twelve days. Biggest first Monday, ₹49.50 crore India gross.
The opening: ₹59.70 crore India net across 16,599 shows, ₹70.25 crore India gross, around ₹57 crore overseas, which Sacnilk records as the biggest overseas opening day for any Indian film this year, and more than ₹125 crore worldwide on day one. In Kerala the tracker AB George estimated a ₹12.50 crore opening, which would make it the biggest Tamil opening the state has seen, ahead of Leo, and second overall behind Empuraan.
Now the part the trade will not say
We have been keeping a running count of how far apart box office sources land on the same film, and Jailer 2 is the worst case of the year. Not because anyone is lying. Because almost nobody is counting.
The four-day weekend came in at ₹418.25 crore worldwide from Sacnilk and ₹410 crore from Pinkvilla, which says plainly that its figures are “subjective trade estimates” that “do not constitute actual, finalised collections”.
Day fifteen is cleaner still as an illustration. ETV Bharat, on the evening of 29 October, had the day at ₹4.25 crore, cumulative India net ₹427.25 crore, India gross ₹500.01 crore, worldwide about ₹755.50 crore. Filmibeat, the next morning, had the day at ₹5.90 crore, net ₹429.55 crore, gross ₹502.65 crore, worldwide ₹765.15 crore. Both are citing Sacnilk. They are quoting the same tracker at different hours and the gap is ten crore.
And The Week’s week-one report has an internal problem: it gives a week-one India net of ₹317.2 crore while its own day-by-day figures in the same piece add up to roughly ₹330 crore, and Filmibeat later puts week one at ₹334.35 crore.
There is one genuinely independent second opinion in Indian box office reporting, and it is Bollywood Hungama, which tracks only the Hindi dub here. Its Hindi running total through 30 October is ₹34.50 crore. Sacnilk’s Hindi line is ₹43.80 crore. That is a nine crore difference on the same version of the same film.
Sun Pictures has published nothing. There is no producer-certified figure for this film, which means every number above, including the record, is a tracker estimate. Sacnilk’s own disclaimer says its data may be approximate and may differ significantly from producer figures.
Bengaluru Baath Take
Rajinikanth is seventy-five and has just posted the biggest result in the history of his industry, in a sequel to a film about a retired jailer, directed by the man who made Beast. There is no sensible model of stardom that explains this. Take the win.
But the industry should be slightly embarrassed that its biggest-ever commercial achievement is a number nobody can state. A Tamil film has crossed seven hundred crore worldwide and the country is choosing between ₹715 crore, ₹733 crore, ₹755 crore and ₹765 crore depending on which aggregator refreshed last. Hollywood publishes studio-reported weekend grosses on a Sunday and corrects them on a Monday. We have one tracker, several resellers of that tracker, and a production house that treats its own revenue as a state secret.
The record deserves better bookkeeping than it is getting. And the Karnataka number deserves more attention than the record, because ₹85.55 crore out of this state, on a ₹6.45 crore Kannada dub, is the most instructive fact of the whole run.
Sources
- Koimoi: Jailer 2 becomes the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time
- Sacnilk: Every major box office record broken by Jailer 2
- The Week: Jailer 2 box office day 2
- Filmibeat: Jailer 2 day 15, past 765 crore worldwide
- ETV Bharat: Jailer 2 day 15, crosses 500 crore India gross
- Pinkvilla: Jailer 2 worldwide opening weekend
- Bollywood Hungama: Jailer 2 Hindi box office
